New bench to review colour-coded cases

SC constitutional bench chief appoints research officer to scrutinize cases

ISLAMABAD:

Colour coding of the cases shall be done as a first step for their transfer to the newly formed constitutional bench of the Supreme Court.

This was decided in a meeting held on November 6 in the chamber of Justice Aminuddin Khan— the head of the newly formed constitutional bench. The meeting had been convened to work out modalities of rapid functioning of the benches.

According to the minutes of the meeting issued on Monday, Justice Khan was briefed about the pendency of the cases under Article 184(1), 184(3) and 186 including human rights cases.

It said the current working/practice of processing of the constitution petitions and proposed strategy for future adoption were also placed before the head of the constitutional bench.

The participants agreed that color coding of the cases should be done.

In this regard, the meeting tasked Mazhar Ali Khan, a senior research officer at the Supreme Court, with scrutinizing the cases arising out of Article 199 of the Constitution.

The minutes said the head of the bench will, however, decide about listing of cases, formation of further constitutional benches, issuance of court roster and the number of cases to be heard each week in consultation with the remaining two senior most members of the constitutional benches. "As in accordance with Article 191A Clause (4), a committee comprising the most senior judge of the constitutional bench and next two most senior judges from amongst the judges nominated under clause (1), has to constitute a bench consisting of not less than five judges for the purposes noted in clause (3) of the Instant Article."

It said as one member of the committee was out of the country, the next meeting of the three-member committee will be scheduled upon his arrival.

The meeting, chaired by Justice Aminuddin Khan, was attended by SC Registrar Muhammad Salim Khan, Additional Registrar Judicial Nazar Abbass, Senior Research Officer Mazhar Ali Khan, Institution Officer Nazeer Ahmed and Judicial Assistants Abdul Rehman and Mubashir Ahmad. The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on November 5 appointed Justice Aminuddin Khan as head of the constitutional benches in the Supreme Court.

Led by Justice Aminuddin Khan, it comprises Justices Ayesha Malik, Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Athar Minallah, Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Musarrat Hilali, and Jamal Khan Mandokhail. The constitutional bench has been formed for a period of 60 days.