June 29, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 24, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 28: Sup-reme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar said on Saturday that merely imparting justice was not enough as the administration of justice was not a private affair but a public matter.

“The judges are therefore required to perform their functions in open courts and the proceedings must be transparent,” he said while speaking at the concluding ceremony of a two-day workshop on “Judicial Good Governance”.

The workshop was jointly organised by the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) and Access to Justice Programme (AJP) of the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Turning to the heads of the district judiciary, he said the cases should be decided at a reasonable speed, with due regard for law and procedure, because the procedures were devised to safeguard the rights of the people.

“Where procedural formality is likely to lead to injustice, the judge should devise ways and means to ensure justice without compromising the essential principles of law and justice,” he said.

He said the cases of widows, orphans, family disputes, including cases of custody of minors, should be assigned priority.

He said the working of judges was different from the working of many other public offices.

The district and session judges had to ensure that all the judges in their district sit in courts and attend to their judicial business, he said.

Terming the district judiciary the backbone of the judicial system, he pointed out that 80 per cent of the litigants went to the district courts.

It is only about 20 per cent of the litigants who went to the superior courts.

“Thus the foundation of a judicial case is prepared at the district level. This foundation should be laid firmly,” he remarked.

Justice Dogar said a district and session judge had to perform the important job of overseeing the working of the judges in his district and therefore he had to be a role model.