ISLAMABAD, May 2: The counsel defending Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in a reference before the Supreme Judicial Council on Wednesday questioned the council’s authority to restrain the chief justice or for that matter any judge of the apex court from performing his functions.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, leading the defence counsel, assailed the power of the referring authority (President Pervez Musharraf) to suspend or send a judge on forced leave. He also presented a tabulation of the provision of Article 269, 270A and 270AA of the Constitution emphasising their impact on the powers of the council to decide the vires of the statute under which the chief justice was sent on forced leave.

The SJC on Wednesday also declined a request of Barrister Ahsan for the second time to refrain from proceedings till a decision on the petitions before a five-member bench on the composition of the council.

The request was made through an application at the outset of today’s proceedings by Barrister Ahsan.

“On April 18, 2007, a similar request was made by the counsel but the prayer was rejected and the counsel was asked to conclude arguments on all preliminary legal objections.” “There is no good ground and lawful justification for stay of proceedings till the decision of petitions before the bench, therefore the prayer is declined,” the SJC order said.

The SJC reminded the defence counsel that as per order of April 24, 2007, he was expected to complete his arguments today. However, he could not do so though he argued on almost all preliminary legal objections.

On his persistent request, he was granted more time to conclude his arguments by 11am on May 3.

The counsel for the referring authority, Dr Khalid Ranjha, and Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan will commence arguments after recess on Thursday.

Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A Malik told reporters after the SJC proceedings that under Article 180 of the Constitution, appointment of an acting chief justice could not be made till the time the chief justice was declared incapacitated due to mental or physical reasons.

Though he appreciated the sympathetic attitude of the acting chief justice towards the defence side, he deplored that the Lahore High Court chief justice had never taken any notes of the arguments advanced by the defence side.

Waseem Sajjad, Dr Khalid Ranjha, Raja Abdul Rehman, Arif Chaudhry, Amanullah Kanrani and Asif Ranjha appeared on behalf of the referring authority and Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Hamid Khan, Qazi Anwar, Munir A. Malik, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Tariq Mehmood represented the chief justice.