KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed a petition seeking a probe into an alleged data breach of mobile phone users after the petitioner did not respond to its queries about the plea, but insisted that the matter be heard by a “constitutional bench”.

The SHC said that it was unable to understand and agree with the submission of petitioner as the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) had enabled all the benches of SHC to continue operating as constitutional benches.

A regular litigant had filed a petition in 2020 and contended that there were reports of personal data breach of 115 million Pakistani mobile phone users allegedly by the telecom service providers and the same was being shown on the darknet by some cybercriminals who were demanding 300BTC ($2.1 billion) for the sale of the data.

The petitioner, who is a practicing lawyer, filed a statement, contending that his petition came under sub-paragraph (i) of paragraphs (a) & (c) Clause 1 of Article 199 of the Constitution and asked the SHC to send the same to the constitutional bench in accordance with the constitutional amendment for hearing.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Shafi Siddiqui and Justice Jawad Akbar Sarwana, in its order noted that they had been enquiring for the last 10 minutes from the petitioner, who had filed that petition in public interest, as to what his case was.

“He has not been able to assist us as to what his/petitioner’s case is about. Without taking us as to the question (s) involved in the petition he then filed a statement today that the matter pertains to constitutional bench in terms of Article 202-A(3)(4) (5) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” it added.

Says petitioner failed to respond to court queries

The bench also observed that the petitioner seemed to be unaware about the last circular issued by the SHC in compliance with the directions of the JCP.

All benches, in view of information contained in the circular, based on the commission’s decision, were operating as constitutional benches, it said.

However, it further noted that on that, the petitioner submitted that it was only an arrangement and did not confer jurisdiction of the constitutional courts to that bench.

“We are unable to understand and agree with such submission as it is the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s discretion and consequent direction which has enabled all Benches operating within the jurisdiction of this Court to continue to operate as Constitutional Benches. Since the counsel [petitioner] is not inclined to proceed with the matter and avoided to the aforesaid account, we dismiss the petition for non-prosecution,” it concluded.

On Nov 8, the JCP unanimously endorsed the proposal of the SHC chief justice that all the existing high court judges were nominated to be the judges of constitutional benches to clear the backlog of cases and such arrangement will remain effective till Nov 24 as the matter will again be taken by the JCP on Nov 25.

Earlier, on Nov 5, the SHC decided not to fix the constitutional petitions pending before it for hearing till formation of constitutional benches after a provincial law officer informed it that the Sindh Assembly had approved a resolution necessary for creation of such benches for high courts.

Thereafter, the SHC had functioned without its constitutional jurisdiction till the meeting of the JCP.

Currently, over 96,000 cases, including suits, civil & criminal appeals and miscellaneous applications/appeals, etc. have been pending before the SHC and around 36,000 of them are constitutional petitions nearly 22,000 at its principal seat in Karachi and around 14,000 at different benches in other parts of the province.

Published in Dawn, November 22th, 2024