ISLAMABAD: A fresh controversy has emerged within the Islamabad High Court (IHC) over the acting chief justice’s authority to unilaterally transfer cases from single benches to division benches.

The move has reportedly spar­ked concerns about judicial procedure and administrative transparency.

A division bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, while upholding an order previously issued by Justice Babar Sattar, expressed surprise at the recent transfer of several cases without clear legal justification.

Last month, Justice Sattar questioned the CJ’s authority to administratively reassign cases, emphasising that such decisions fall under the domain of judges and the deputy registrar.

“The chief justice has no authority to determine on the administrative side, whether a Court ought to hear a case,” Justice Sattar stated.

Justice Kayani says acting CJ cannot reassign cases unilaterally

Justice Sattar’s remarks came in wake of a case that he himself had recused from, but the chief justice reassigned the same case to him, leading the former to call the return of the case an “inadvertent mistake”. He stressed that reassignment requests must be routed through the deputy registrar (judicial) to ensure compliance with institutional protocols.

An IHC division bench on Monday expressed surprise to note that a case pertaining to a blasphemy issue was fixed before the division bench instead of its scheduled hearing before a single-member bench.

As per the court record, Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir asked the registrar office to place three petitions related to blasphemy issues before the chief justice.

The chief justice ordered the judicial branch to consolidate all the relevant petitions and appeals and assign the hearing to the division bench-II comprising Justice Kayani and Justice Khan.

During proceedings, Justice Kayani asked: “Under which law can a single bench case be transferred to a division bench?”

Lawyers from all parties endorsed it, stating: “We are all worried about this”.

Justice Kayani further noted that the order to transfer the cases was reportedly issued by the acting chief justice, but added that in doing so reference to any legal provision or administrative committee decision had not been provided.

Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan added that the transfer included not just the current case but also 21 related tax matters.

“There is no reference to any specific legal provision in the order of the acting chief justice,” Justice Kayani remarked. “This case has already been heard in detail by a single bench. It is not appropriate to transfer it to another bench without any justification.”

The bench directed the Regis­trar’s Office to place the cases before the acting chief justice for appropriate reassignment, stressing that the cases must be allocated according to law and rules of the court.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2025