LAHORE, Jan 8: The Supreme Court Bar Association would challenge the out-of-turn elevation of three Lahore High Court judges to the Supreme Court and boycott their swearing-in on Jan 10, SCBA president Hamid Khan said here on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference along with other office-bearers of the association at the SC’s Lahore registry, he said the petition would be directly filed in the Supreme Court under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution but a formal decision would be taken by an SCBA executive meeting scheduled to be held in Islamabad on Jan 19. He, however, hoped that the government would accept the legal fraternity’s demand to withdraw the elevation notification of Dec 26, 2001, before Jan 10.

Asked whether the Pakistan Bar Council would also boycott the ceremony, Mr Khan, who is a member of the PBC, said he did not know but the council had also probably decided to move the court against the appointments, ‘which were in clear violation of the Supreme Court verdict in the 1996 Judges Case and 1998 Asad Ali case.’ Besides, the outgoing chief justice recommended an appointment to the vacancy to be created by him, though it was for his successor (Chief Justice Bashir Jehangiri) to act as judicial consultee for any seat falling vacant on his retirement.

Asked whether the rule of seniority laid down in the Judges Case was confined only to appointment of chief justices of the high court or covered all judicial appointments, Mr Khan said the principle was retrospectively applied to the chief justice of Pakistan in the Asad Ali case and was applicable to all judicial appointments by necessary implication. Justiciable reasons must be given for every supersession. If a high court chief justice declined elevation to the Supreme Court, he must have reached some understanding with the executive as head of the provincial judiciary. The 1996 and 1998 Supreme Court judgments were aimed at making the judiciary truly independent of the executive and self-operative in the matter of appointments, he said.

SCBA vice-president M. A. Zafar, secretary Anwar Hamid Sahibzada and executive members Tariq Aziz Malik, Anwar Sipra, Sadiq Chaudhry, Irshad Husain Bhatti, Amin Javed Chaudhry and Rana Abdul Hameed Talib also warned the government of anomalies likely to result from violation of SC judgments.