SC withdraws contempt notice against registrar

The court stated that Nazar Abbas acted without malice or personal gain in handling the case schedule.

Listen to article

The Supreme Court has withdrawn a contempt notice issued to Additional Registrar (Judicial) Nazar Abbas.

The bench comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Aqeel Abbasi announced the verdict on Monday, Express News reported.

The court ruled that Nazar Abbas acted without malice or personal gain in handling the case schedule. “There was no negligence or wilful disregard of judicial orders in his actions,” the verdict read.

The verdict read that the Practice and Procedure Committee overstepped its authority by retracting a case already under judicial orders. Similarly, the Judicial Committees lacked the mandate to override a judicial order through administrative decisions.

“The committees ignored the judicial order, and this matter requires resolution by a full court,” the bench noted, adding that under Article 175(6) of the Constitution, only a full court could decide on the committees’ actions.

The bench has referred the issue to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, recommending the formation of a full court to determine whether the judicial committees’ actions amounted to contempt.

The bench also directed that a customs case, which was erroneously recalled, be reassigned to the original three-member bench that had initially heard it.

The Chief Justice will now decide on convening a full court to address the procedural and administrative irregularities raised in the ruling.

During previous hearing, Justice Shah noted that after the formation of a Constitutional Bench (CB) within the SC in view of the 26th Constitutional Amendment a majority of cases were being shifted to the CB.

He said there was a need to review the jurisdiction of the regular benches in relation to the CB. The bench later issued notices to respondents.

At the next date of hearing on January 16 on of the members of the bench, Justice Khan, was replaced with Justice Aqeel Abbasi, who had heard the Customs Act's case as a Sindh High Court judge. The bench expressed astonishment at the change in composition of the bench and demanded that the previous bench should be restored as it adjourned the hearing till January 20.

However, an SC committee led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi on January 17 directed its office to withdraw these cases from the regular bench and placed them before the CB Committee constituted under Article 191A of the Constitution for re-listing.

This move irked the regular bench members who issued a contempt notice to the additional registrar (judicial). The bench members also wrote a letter to the committee led by CJP Afridi.

In the letter, they stated that a failure of the office to comply with a judicial order of the court not only undermines the institution's integrity but was also in defiance of a settled law by this court that administrative orders cannot take away the jurisdiction of the bench taking cognizance of a matter'.

Despite the letter, the SC regular committee did not review its decision regarding the withdrawal of the case from the regular bench but removed the additional registrar "on account of serious lapse" on January 21.