ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgment in the contempt of court case against Additional Registrar Nazar Abbas in the bench powers case.
A two-member bench of the Supreme Court heard the contempt of court case against the additional registrar for not scheduling the bench powers case for hearing.
The issue at hand relates to the erred fixing of cases — which included a challenge to the vires of Custom Act 1969 — by Additional Registrar (Judicial) Nazar Abbas — who has been removed from his post — who wrongly fixed cases meant for the Supreme Court’s constitutional bench instead of a regular one.
The cases were fixed before a regular bench of three judges which were heard on January 13, 2025, where in addition to the merit of the case, the constitutionality of sub-section 2 of section 11A of the Customs Act was challenged.
The jurisdiction of the bench was contested and subsequently, the cases were adjourned to January 16.
Realising the serious lapse on their part, the Judicial Branch through a note approached the regular committee under section 2(1) of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023.
Keeping in view the serious nature of lapse the committee convened on January 17 under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP). The committee noted that Clause 3 of Article 191A of the Constitution read with Clause 5 of Article 191A of the Constitution expressly vests such jurisdiction in the constitutional bench and none other.
The committee, therefore, withdrew these cases from the regular bench and directed that the same should be placed before the constitutional bench committee constituted under Article 191A of the Constitution for re-fixation.
The issue has also led to Justice Shah, Justice Ayesha A Malik and Justice Aqeel writing a letter to CJP Yahya Afridi the head of the constitutional bench Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan about the issue regarding the formation of benches.
