Hold on: SHC stays shifting of subordinate courts to new location

KARACHI: The courts were being moved by the home department without the high court's consent

Sindh High Court (SHC), on Friday, restrained the home department from shifting the subordinate courts, allegedly without seeking the SHC's consent, from the City Courts Complex to the newly created district of Korangi.

Headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, the bench issued a temporary stay order while hearing a petition jointly filed by the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) and the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA).

The representative bodies of the lawyers practicing at the superior and subordinate courts in the metropolis approached the court against the proposed plan of the home and the law departments to relocate the courts form the City Courts Complex to Korangi.

The petitioners, KBA president Salahuddin Ahmed and SHCBA secretary Asim Iqbal, submitted that currently the civil and criminal courts of the city's East, West, South and Central districts are situated and functioning at the City Courts Complex on MA Jinnah Road, whereas the district courts for the Malir district are located separately at the Malir Judicial Complex on the National Highway.

They said that the ministry of law, parliamentary affairs and human rights has the power to alter the limits or the number of the divisions and districts within the province and also to establish different sessions courts and determining their respective jurisdictions, under Section 7 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1898.

Similarly, under Section 4 of the Civil Courts Ordinance, 1962, the ministry has the power to divide the province into civil districts, fix their limits and determine their headquarters.

The petitioners informed the two-judge bench that the home department had issued a notification on April 29 whereby it constituted, in exercise of its purported powers, a new Korangi Session Division comprising of Model Colony, Shah Faisal, Korangi and Landhi. The petitioners maintained that the powers of the home department are to be exercised fairly and reasonably for the purpose of promoting and improving the administration of justice.

Moreover, they argued that in view of Article 175 of the Constitution, such powers can only be exercised by the respondents in consultation with, and subject to the consent of, the SHC. "Unfortunately, in the present case, the said powers are being exercised in an unreasonable, mala fide and illegal manner; without the consent of the SHC and without due consultation with the primarily affected stakeholders," they pointed out.

According to the petitioner, decentralisation of the sessions and districts courts in Karachi will create problems for administering justice, as litigants and prisoners would face inconvenience if they are required to appear before different courts at different venues. Moreover, the supervision of the subordinate courts in Karachi by the SHC would become more difficult.

The petitioners claimed that the establishment of courts for the newly created Korangi district is part of a mala fide scheme aimed at weakening the unity and strength of the existing bar associations. They claimed that the respondents are also planning to shift other subordinate courts to different venues.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2014.