ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has been requested to direct the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan to devise for lower courts fresh rules stipulating maximum time limit for deciding suits, petitions and appeals and also disclose the average time courts and tribunals consume in handing down a decree, order or judgement.

In a joint petition, legal practitioners Umeer Ijaz Gilani, Attaullah Hakeem Kundi, Muhammad Haider Imtiaz, Raheel Ahmed and Hadiya Aziz also sought a court order for the National Judiciary Policy Making Committee to revise the national judicial policy on the basis of scientific assessment of the present state of affairs and its causes and submit it to the Supreme Court.

The petitioners said they were personally aggrieved by the lack of enforcement of the fundamental right of access to justice as well as the loss of reputation of the judicial system in the eyes of the people.

A number of studies published by the World Justice Index and the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Survey as well as those conducted by the Supreme Court and many others reveal that the right of access to justice is being violated in Pakistan 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.

Petitioners want judicial policy based on scientific assessment of present state of affairs, its causes

The study conducted by the Supreme Court on the directive of former chief justice Jawwad S. Khawaja concluded that it took an average of 25 years to conclude litigation in Pakistan. Likewise, another study on lower courts conducted by one of the petitioners suggested that the total shelf-life of an average case in civil courts of Punjab was around 37.3 months (more than three years) and from institution onwards all the way to the passing of a decree, an average case required around 58 hearings.

The petitioners requested the apex court to order the registrars of high courts to make fresh rules under Article 202 of the Constitution and Section 122 of the CPC for imposing cost on litigants and 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 abusing the process of the court.

They also requested the Supreme Court to order the federal and provincial governments to submit a report on the total number of pending cases, including suits, petitions, appeals and revisions. They said the registrars of high courts should be directed to furnish the total number of prosecutions initiated and convictions obtained under sections 193-196 of the PPC by judges under their superintendence over the past three years.

The petitioners argued that the high court registrars should also submit periodic reports on the steps taken by their rule committees to enforce the fundamental right of access to justice, and in case such committees had not been constituted or were insufficiently active, they should be directed to constitute the rules committees, equip them with professional staff and convene their meetings on a regular basis.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2018