ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will commence on Monday (today) hearing of a petition seeking fresh rules for lower courts to decide suits, petitions and appeals within a stipulated time limit.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan will take up the joint petition moved by Umeer Ijaz Gilani, Attaullah Hakeem Kundi, Mohammad Haider Imtiaz, Raheel Ahmed and Hadiya Aziz, all lawyers.

The petition requests the court to direct the national judiciary policy makers to revise the National Judicial Policy, including a policy on delay reduction, based upon scientific assessment of the present state of affairs and its causes, and submit the same to the apex court.

According to the petition, the petitioners are personally aggrieved by the lack of enforcement of the fundamental right of access to justice and the loss of reputation of the judicial system in the eyes of the people of Pakistan due to delays in dispensation of justice.

Citing a number of studies published by eminent social scientists including the World Justice Index, The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Survey and the one conducted by the apex court itself, the petition says the evidence highlights that the right of access to justice is being violated in the country in a systematic and wholesale manner. Litigants of all kinds who seek to enforce their right through courts face inordinate delays which cannot be reasonably predicted, it argues.

Quoting a research conducted by the Supreme Court on a directive of former chief justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, the petition contends that it takes an average of 25 years to conclude litigation in Pakistan.

Likewise another study of the lower courts conducted by one of the petitioners suggests that the shelf-life of an average case in the civil courts of Punjab is over 37 months and from institution to the passing of decree, an average case requires around 58 hearings, it adds.

Recently the chief justice during a meeting of the administrative tribunals and special courts regretted that with a budget of Rs4.3 billion, 330 special courts and administrative tribunals were still seized with 159,243 cases.

Surprisingly, an average disposal of cases by these tribunals or special courts varies from four to seven months. The average salary of presiding officers of the tribunals or special courts is Rs1.18 million in case they are retired judges of high court or Rs330,000 to Rs420,000 if they are sessions judges.

The chief justice at the recent meeting said many presiding officers of the tribunals or special courts handed down judgements after a year when they should be issuing decisions within one month. “Though the judiciary is facing a number of challenges, it is our duty not to let these difficulties impede in dispensing justice,” he observed.

The petition requests the apex court to order the registrars of the high courts to make fresh rules under Article 202 of the Constitution and Section 122 of the Criminal Procedure Code for imposing costs on litigants who pursue frivolous petitions or for prosecution of perjurers, stipulate maximum time limit for different kinds of suits, petitions and appeals and regulate alternative dispute resolution in addition to discipline the lawyers who abuse the process of the court.

The petition urges the Supreme Court to order the federal and provincial governments to submit reports on the total number of pending cases, including suits, petitions, appeals and revisions.

The registrars of the high courts should furnish the total number of prosecutions initiated and convictions obtained under Sections 193 to 196 of the Pakistan Penal Code by judges under their superintendence during the past three years, the petition says.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2018

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