Eligibility rows: Registrar now a party in disqualification plea

229 judges serving at the LHC had failed departmental examinations.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Friday allowed a lawyer to name the court’s registrar as a party in his petition seeking disqualification of 229 civil judges-cum-judicial magistrates in Punjab, who had failed to pass the departmental examination.

At previous hearing, Justice Umar Ata Bandial had told the petitioner to remove the registrar’s name from the list of the respondents.

The petitioner, Advocate Chaudhry Muhammad Fakhir Razzaq, sought time from the court to file the amended petition. The hearing was then adjourned till January 19.

Advocate Razzaq had stated that 288 civil judges-cum-judicial magistrates appeared in the departmental examination for regularisation in service. Out of these only 59 were successful. He pointed out that 22 among the successful judges were given grace marks and most of the unsuccessful judges failed in all six subjects. These judges were directly appointed by the high court last year. The petitioner contended that the situation was ‘disappointing’ for the district judiciary.

He requested the court to declare the unsuccessful judges disqualified for the job and to immediately bar them from performing judicial work.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2011.