Procedure of setting up tribunals challenged

‘Notifications to form commissions violate Article 175 of the Constitution’.

LAHORE: A full bench of Lahore High Court on Wednesday sought details on notifications issued by the federal and Punjab governments regarding the formation of judicial commissions and tribunals.

The bench was hearing several petitions that raised questions over the process of setting up judicial commissions by the governments. They had also challenged the Punjab government’s decision not to make the Model Town violence inquiry report public. The petitioners also challenged a three-member committee headed by Justice (retd) Khalilur Rehman  Ramday formed to review the Model Town violence inquiry report. Petitioners’ counsel Azhar Siddique and Aftab Bajwa argued that the notifications issued by the governments in establishing the commissions and tribunals violated Article 175 of the Constitution and several Supreme Court judgments.

They said the government had been deliberately delaying the implementation of suggestions in the inquiry report.

The LHC registrar’s office produced two letters written by the Punjab government; one to form the Model Town Inquiry Tribunal under Section 176 of Criminal Code of Procedure and another under Sections 3 and 5 of the Punjab Judicial Inquiry Ordinance 1969. When asked about the notifications, Mustafa  Ramday, on behalf of the government, told the bench that two notifications could not be issued under the law.

The bench observed that it seemed that there was no law regulating the formation of judicial commissions. The bench expressed an intention to examine whether the chief justice of a High Court had the authority to constitute inquiry commissions or tribunals.

The bench adjourned hearing till March 13 and directed the government’s counsel to submit details of notifications previously issued for the constitution of judicial commissions and tribunals.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2015.