27 February 2005	Sunday	17 Muharram 1426

LAHORE, Feb 26: Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmad has observed that law is not confined to statute books but is used in its generic sense as connoting all that is treated as law which includes even judicial principles as laid down by superior courts.

The court made the observation in a writ petition through which Shahzada Zahoor Ali Shah had assailed a decision of the land acquisition collector of the Lahore Development Authority which, he submitted, ignored the parameters spelled out by the high court in an earlier order.

Setting aside the LDA decision while accepting the petition, the court remarked if tribunals gave decisions with application of their judicial mind, workload on superior courts would substantially be reduced. It was because the tribunals decided cases without considering the law in its complete conception, the superior judiciary was made to work more in removing legal anomalies.

Division benches: Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry has constituted 12 division benches and 26 single benches at the Lahore High Court to adjudicate cases from the week commencing from Monday.

Four of the division benches will take up all matters, three each will take care of appeals, revisions and civil matters while the remaining will proceed on criminal, civil and tax matters.