Benches’ powers case referred to CJP for full court formation

The Supreme Court (SC) has disposed of the contempt of court case against Additional Registrar Nazar Abbas and referred the matter of determining the powers of constitutional and regular benches to the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) for formation of a full court.

According to the 24NewsHD TV channel, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced the reserved verdict on Monday, withdrawing contempt proceedings against the additional registrar (judicial) for not fixing a case regarding the jurisdiction of regular benches.

The case, reserved for judgement on January 23, centred on the additional registrar's failure to schedule a matter regarding the jurisdiction of constitutional and regular benches, rather it was transferred to the constitutional bench for further hearing.

The case was originally heard by a two-member bench comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi.

The decision came as a two-judge bench, comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, pronounced its verdict on the contempt proceedings against Additional Registrar (Judicial) Nazar Abbas, who was removed by the court office on Tuesday.

During the hearing, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah noted that the bench deliberated on two questions — one about delisting cases and the other about invalidating a court order through an administrative order.

The SC judge remarked “The court did not find any such proof that showed that the additional registrar (judicial) had any personal interest in the case.”

Noting that neither was any evidence found of any “ill-intent” of the SC official, the senior puisne judge announced the withdrawal of the show-cause notice on the contempt of court against Nazar Abbas.

The verdict written by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah says prima facie the contempt of court proceedings should be against judges committees, but they are not issuing notices due to the court’s sanctity.

The controversy arose when the additional registrar failed to fix a plea filed by the federal government concerning whether regular Supreme Court benches can rule on constitutional matters, particularly Article 191-A introduced through the 26th Amendment.

On January 24, the SC formed a larger bench, comprising six members and led by Justice Jamal Mandokhail, to hear the case on January 27.

Earlier on January 21, Nazar Abbas was removed from his position as Additional Registrar (Judicial) and reassigned as an officer on special duty (OSD) following a controversy over case fixing.

A notification issued by the Additional Registrar (Administration) revealed that Abbas had mistakenly scheduled constitutional cases before a regular bench, disrupting proceedings and wasting resources.

The registrar’s office confirmed that the affected cases involved challenges to the Customs Act, 1969, under CPLA Nos 836-K to 887-K, 951-K, and 1056-K of 2020, and 741-K to 743-K of 2021. These cases were meant for the constitutional bench but were incorrectly listed before the regular bench.

Reporter: Hashar Warriach