• Apex council defers complaints against five judges for the time being
• CJP’s proposal to make ‘frivolous’ allegations public not endorsed by colleagues
• Meeting approves draft of Supreme Judicial Council Secretariat Service Rules-2025

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) after perusal on Saturday, dropped 19 complaints out of a total of 24 filed by individuals under Article 209 of the Constitution against different judges of the superior courts.

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, who also heads the council as its chairman, the five-member SJC disposed of 19 complaints through a unanimous decision.

However, it decided to defer five other complaints against different judges for the time being.

The members who attended the meeting included Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah (who joined via video link), Justice Munib Akhtar, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, and Sindh High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar.

During the meeting, the CJP suggested that the complaints, which were rejected by the council, should at least be made public so that the people could know about the frivolous allegations levelled against the judges, but other members of the council did not endorse the idea.

On the completion of the first 100 days of the CJP in February, it was announced by the council that the SJC during the last two sittings had examined 46 complaints, under Article 209 of the Constitution, received against constitutional office-holders, of which 40 had been disposed of.

In one of the meetings of the council, it was decided to hold regular monthly sessions to clear the backlog of outstanding complaints against superior court judges on the fast track.

On Saturday, the council discussed all the agenda items one by one and approved the proposed draft of Supreme Judicial Council Secretariat Service Rules-2025, while it was resolved that the procedure of enquiry and amendments in the Code of Conduct and Procedure of Enquiry 2005 needed to be examined from a legal and drafting point of view; therefore, these required further deliberations.

To reinforce judicial accountability, the SJC had earlier appointed Justice Munib Akhtar as head of a committee to propose amendments to the code of conduct for judges and to suggest the procedure for conducting an inquiry against the superior court judges.

In one of the interactions with the media, CJP Afridi had conceded that the draft for amending the code of conduct had been finalised, outlining the procedure for submitting complaints and the preliminary scrutiny of complaints to determine their validity, or further investigation, etc.

The SJC had earlier established a separate secretariat to enhance its operational capacity.

Earlier this week, CJP Afridi called the SJC meeting to consider around two dozen pending complaints against superior court judges and a set of recommendations to streamline the process of handling complaints and to ensure transparency while probing allegations of misconduct against judges.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2025