December 04, 2006	Monday	Ziqa'ad 12, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: A number of administrative changes, reshuffling, curtailing of vacations by judges and suo motu actions by the chief justice improved the performance of the Supreme Court last year, which decided 23,353 cases slashing two third of the pending cases.

The apex court took up some cases of public interest which rekindled the hopes of the masses in the court for getting justice.

Such cases included the conversion of a public park by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) into a mini-golf course, environmental hazards posed by the New Murree housing project, the Islamabad Chalet and Pir Sohawa valley villas, Islamabad Medical and Dental College, spurious medicines and a good number of other cases involving malfunctioning in different public service institutions.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry presented the 2005-06 report of the Supreme Court to President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Saturday. The report shows that there were 11,631 cases pending with the court by December 2006, compared to 38,139 cases pending in the corresponding period of last year.

Amendments to Article 209 of the Constitution brought a significant change in the working of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). Before the amendments, the council could process only such cases which were referred to it by the president. But the amendments allowed the council to inquire into the conduct or capacity of the judges of the superior courts on its own besides a reference from the president.

The chief justice convened successive meetings of the council to institutionalise its functioning in an effective manner. The council prepared and promulgated the procedure for initiating action and conducting investigations.

The report says the court adopted a two-pronged approach to deal with the high number of pending cases. On the one hand, measures were taken to expedite the processing of cases by the court staff while on the other a crash programme was launched for their early disposal.

For this, records were summoned, legal heirs of the deceased parties were brought on record, details of sentences were collected from jails throughout the country about the convicts whose cases were pending before the supreme court. The cases were divided into different categories. Cases of the same nature were linked together and special benches were constituted for different categories of cases.

A special bench was constituted for hearing of not only urgent cases but also newly instituted cases.

The report says increased disposal of cases necessitated appropriate increase in staff to better equip the judges in their research assignments. Thus, three additional posts of research officers were created. Some new posts of stenographers were also created and the post of judicial assistant was upgraded from BPS- 15 to BPS-16, as an incentive for law graduates to join the court. “Judicial data and statistics are now regularly shared with the public. Courts are open to all and sundry including the media.

A consolidated statement giving figures of institution and disposal of cases in the court is published every month for general information.”

A human rights cell was established in the court to deal with cases and complaints received under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.

It includes complaints of violation of fundamental rights. Under this jurisdiction, the court entertains regular petitions as well as letters received from the public.

Suo motu action can also be initiated on violation of fundamental rights as reported by the media. This jurisdiction, commonly known as public interest litigation, is exercised by the court with a view to check the abuse of power or misuse of authority, the report states.

Similarly, necessary renovation of the branch registry building at Karachi has been carried out. The rest house is also being renovated.

The new building of Peshawar branch registry has become functional.