LAHORE: A civil judge convicted for contempt in a petition he filed against a chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 1993 has approached the court against the denial of pension and other benefits though charges against him abated in 2021.

He was also dismissed from service on the charge of ‘moral turpitude’.

Dr Syed Ali Sana Bokhari had joined the district judiciary in 1978 and was posted in the LHC in 1991 as in-charge of a newly established computer cell. He claims that then chief justice Mian Mehboob Ahmad nurtured a grudge against him after he refused to follow an ‘illegal’ direction for the procurement of computers and other machinery.

Bokhari was issued a charge-sheet in 1991 and he filed a contempt of court petition in the LHC against the chief justice. A single bench dismissed his petition in a judgement which was restrained from publishing in press and any law journal.

The bench also initiated suo motu proceedings against Bokhari and convicted him in 1993 under contempt charges awarding six months simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs5,000.

In 2000, a division bench also dismissed his appeal against the conviction with an observation “…he (the petitioner) incurred wrath of the institution.”

The Supreme Court, however, partially allowed his appeal reducing the sentence from six to one month in 2001.

As departmental proceedings, Bokhari was issued a show-cause notice for termination from service on the charge of “moral turpitude” and finally dismissed by the administration committee of the LHC on Sept 28, 2001. He filed a service appeal before the Punjab Subordinate Judiciary Service Tribunal which took 13 years to set aside his termination on June 20, 2014. Bokhari had superannuated during the pendency of his appeal in 2004.

The tribunal in its decision observes, “In view of the fact that the respondent department has dismissed the petitioner from service without deliberating upon the core issue involved in the matter, we are, therefore, inclined to set aside the impugned notification and deem it appropriate to remand the matter for decision afresh in accordance with law.”

Both Bokhari and the LHC challenged the tribunal’s decision before the Supreme Court that disposed of the same in 2020 with a direction to the competent authority to decide the matter within three months.

A notification issued on May 5, 2021 says, “The chief justice and judges are pleased to abate the disciplinary proceedings against Dr Syed Ali Sana Bokhari, ex-civil judge having already crossed the age of superannuation.”

Bokhari approached the LHC registrar for the release of his pension and other benefits but the application was dismissed through the impugned notification on Jan 22, 2022. Bokhari has filed a writ petition against the notification through Advocate Taffazul Haider Rizvi.

Justice Faisal Zaman Khan would hear the petition as an objection case on Monday.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2022