PHC clears years of backlog in days

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) had a busy day on Thursday and achieved a significant milestone by clearing a six-year backlog of cases involving employees of subordinate courts.

The court passed verdicts/decisions in 104 long-pending cases, and subsequently released the relevant data. Judgments were issued in 103 cases, while five cases were adjourned until the arrival of another senior judge.

PHC Justice Ijaz Anwar heard a backlog of cases that had been pending since 2018. A total of 108 appeals were pending and Justice Anwar successfully completed all of them. During the hearing, only a handful of cases were adjourned until the arrival of the second senior puisne judge.

Justice Anwar recused himself from hearing these cases, citing his prior involvement as a lawyer in the same matters. Similarly, verdicts were passed in a total of 104 cases.

Of these, 36 appeals from employees of subordinate courts were rejected. Additionally, 46 appeals were disposed of on the grounds that the employees had already approached the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Services Tribunal, making further hearings in the PJC unnecessary.

According to the data, seven appeals of the employees were approved, while a decision was reserved on nine cases. Additionally, four appeals were partially approved. According to the PHC’s data, the senior puisne judge initiated formal hearings for these appeals on Wednesday after they had been pending for six years. Following a few regular hearings, the decisions on these appeals were issued.

These appeals were filed by employees of subordinate courts, challenging decisions made by sessions judges regarding their dismissals, demotions, increments, and other related matters.

The swift decision in these cases arrives on the coattails of the PHC deciding to forego a month of its summer vacations. The aim was that the court would be able to continue holding proceedings to clear the backlog of civil cases that had been pending for years. Some of the cases of the subordinate court employees had been pending since the year 2018.

PHC Administration Registrar Mumraiz Khan Khalil said at the time that the PHC chief justice had decided that the court would forego its summer holidays after taking senior lawyers into confidence. It was agreed that the lawyers would make themselves available to provide relief to litigants whose cases had been pending for years.

Mumraiz Khan said that the PHC usually had summer vacation for two months starting from July 1 to September 1. However, the chief justice decided to waive a month’s worth of summer vacations in 2024 to hear and clear the cases. He added that the high court would have summer vacation for a month from August 1.

He revealed at the time that the PHC Administrative Committee consulted senior lawyers over the matter. He said the high court would forego its July vacation and focus on hearing civil cases. He said that special benches would be formed to hear the matters, adding that a weekly roster would be created to facilitate the lawyers.