SC rules on judge’s right to job

The Supreme Court has held that the judge of a high court cannot claim a vested right to job confirmation solely on the ground that his name has been recommended by the chief justice of the said court.

"A recommendation from the chief justice of a high court is nothing but a process of procedure and the said recommendation needs to be deliberated and ultimately voted on by the JCP before a name is either confirmed or dropped by a majority vote of the JCP.

“Even if it is to be assumed that a decision of the JCP was amenable to judicial review under Article 199 of the Constitution, this court has already found the JCP's decision that is the subject matter of this petition without any legal or jurisdictional defect," a 13-page judgment authored by Justice Ijazul Ahsan said, while dismissing a petition of former Islamabad High Court judge Azim Afridi whose job was not confirmed by the JCP.

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Afridi’s petition was dismissed by the Peshawar High Court in 2017. The division bench of the apex court noted that by “no stretch of imagination” it could be assumed that the framers of the 18th and the 19th amendments envisaged that decisions of the JCP would be made amendable to judicial review by way of constitutional petitions filed under Article 199 of the Constitution.

"The JCP is also not a ‘court’ whose decisions can be made the subject of superintendence by the High Courts of Pakistan for the Purposes of exercising certiorari under Article 199 of constitution.

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“The judgment notes that for the purposes of this petition, it becomes clear that whenever a high court is exercising its constitutional jurisdiction for the purposes of certiorari, it is directing a court under its superintendence to correct any error of law or jurisdiction in a judgment/decision assailed before it in such a manner that the same order or judgment can be ‘certified’ by the same High Court," the judgment said.

"However, whilst certiorari may be a prerogative of the High Court under Article 199 of the Constitution of Pakistan, it is still a discretionary power," it added.

The judgment noted that it was also a settled principle of law that the high court does not sit as a court of appeal while exercising constitutional Jurisdiction.