‘Judges’ chambers out of bounds for lawyers’

LAHORE: An inquiry committee looking into the circumstances that led to a clash between members of the Lahore Bar Association and the District and Sessions Judge Sheikh Zawar Ahmed has recommended that the judges’ chambers should be out of bonds for the lawyers.

A four-member committee headed by Lahore High Court’s Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry has recommended that the bar representatives and the lawyers should not have access to the chambers of the judges. The idea is to eliminate the opportunity of pressuring the judges.

The committee has completed the inquiry and sent the report to the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

The committee has recommended that the judges be courteous towards the lawyers. It has also pointed out various illegal tactics adopted by many lawyers to keep their clients. The committee has included documented evidence of this in the report.

Advocate Mian Israrul Haq, a member of the committee, told The Express Tribune on Sunday that after listening to the witnesses and going through the evidence, they had recommended that the lawyers should not insist for early notices to their opponents, long adjournments in cases of bail-before-arrest, unnecessary adjournments, and acceptance of bail bonds without proper scrutiny of the supporting documents.

The lawyers should also not compel the judges to leave their seats during lawyers’ strikes. However, he said, the judges should also cooperate with the lawyers in this regard.

He said that lawyers must not lock court rooms, criticise verdicts, pressure the judges to change their decisions or seek favourable decisions in bail matters by concealing rejection of the same case by another court. They must respect the female judges especially, he said.  He said that no resolution should be carried by the bar against any judicial officer except in case of manifest corruption.

He said the committee had recommended that the judges respect the lawyers without any discrimination and give them a chance to properly and fully argue their case. If a lawyer was busy before another court, the court should adjourn or dispose of the case only after giving ample opportunity for appearance.

The committee however requested the lawyers and the judges to avoid unnecessary delays. It urged both to help achieve the goals of the National Judicial Policy. The judges should strictly abide by the court timings and should work hard for dispensation of visible justice. Mian Israr said that the judges should remain in the court rooms and should retire to their chambers only during notified breaks.

The bar should constitute a committee of senior lawyers, of no less than 25 years standing, to handle any case of a clash between the bar and the bench in future, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2010.