Minallah issues dissent in contempt case

Supreme Court judge Athar Minallah has issued a handwritten dissenting note in a case related to initiation of contempt proceedings against the SC Additional Registrar Judicial Nazar Abbas.

The judge was part of the six-member larger bench that took up the additional registrar's intra-court appeal against a show cause notice issued by a division bench.

The petitioner had later filed an application requesting permission to withdraw the appeal filed under section 19 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003.

On January 27, two members of the bench — Justice Shahid Waheed and Justice Minallah — dismissed the appeal on the grounds of having been withdrawn. They had noted that as the original bench had discharged the contempt notice, the continuation of the appeal was no longer necessary or relevant.

In his note, Justice Minallah concurred with the opinion of Justice Shahid Waheed. He noted that the impugned appeal had become infructuous since the notice had been discharged.

"This bench was constituted under Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003 read with Article 204 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.

"There is no other work pending before this bench. With the discharge of the impugned notice now no more pending the appeal is therefore accordingly dismissed," he added.