Supreme Court judge Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan on Friday observed that the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) was authorized to decide the fate of a judge on account of misconduct.
The government or the Parliament could not fire any judge as it was the domain of the Supreme Judicial Council as per Constitution, he said during the hearing of a petition challenging the report/opinion of Supreme Judicial Council and notification issued by the Ministry of Law on dated 11.10.2018, by a 5-member larger SC bench.
The bench comprised Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah.
During the course of proceedings, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan asked whether the current reference taken by the Supreme Judicial Council itself.
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Advocate Hamid Khan, counsel for Shoukat Siddiqui, said the reference was not sent by the president.
Justice Ijaz said the Supreme Judicial Council did not take notice but took action when the complaint was received.
Hamid Khan said that the Supreme Judicial Council fired the judge on the basis of show-cause notices and their responses.
This is a strange situation where the fate of a judge of the superior court has been left at the mercy of the SJC proceedings and hinges upon a body which was not even a court rather a trial court. https://t.co/rJMuEaXJ3k
— Asad Ali Toor (@AsadAToor) June 3, 2021
Justice Mazhar said that all the material was before the Supreme Judicial Council and was not denied. He asked the council whether the speech was a violation of the judge’s code of conduct or not. He also asked the council to inform the court that if the Council needed further inquiries.
Hamid Khan said an application for open trial was rejected in the Supreme Judicial Council. He said that many procedures were adopted to protect a judge’s tenure. He said that there should have been an inquiry to find the truth.
Justice Ijaz asked wouldn’t it be better if the institution could have been contacted before asserting allegations against it.
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Justice Bandial said there were many other aspects of the independence of the judiciary. If a judge made a mistake, the trial of the entire judiciary began, he added.
Later, the case was adjourned till date in office.
Courtesy: APP