ISLAMABAD, July 1: The Supreme Court has decided to pass appropriate stricture on any judgment passed by subordinate courts that smacks of corruption and foul play.

The decision was taken at a full court meeting presided over by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Later briefing newsmen, SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain said the full court took strong notice of complaints about corrupt practices by subordinate courts as well as parties involved in litigation, and observed that such practice should not go unchecked.

He said various options available with the Supreme Court to check and eradicate corruption and the use of pressure to obtain favourable judgments from subordinate courts, were examined.

The full court decided to pass appropriate stricture to be placed on the dossier of judicial officer concerned, when during hearing of appeals, a judgment was found to be lacking in the required standards of judiciousness and corruption was seen to be floating on its surface.

It was decided that orders so passed would be sent to relevant quarters for evaluation. He said a mechanism would also be put in place to monitor the implementation of orders and judgments.

A special cell headed by the registrar of the Supreme Court would be set up to keep track of all such judgments and the status of their judgments.

Pointing out that all executive and judicial authorities under the Constitution were bound to honour, accept and implement judgments passed by the apex court, Dr Hussain said authorities found to be in default of implementation of Supreme Court’s orders would be dealt with strictly. “This will not only be helpful in provision of free and fair dispensation of justice to masses, but will also assist in strengthening the confidence of the people in judiciary and enhancing its prestige,” he remarked.

It was also decided that judges of the Supreme Court would not avail summer vacations in full and would continue to work at the Principal seat in Islamabad as well as branch registries at provincial headquarters, in order to clear the backlog and pending cases.

There were a total of 25,808 cases pending before the Supreme Court on July 1, 2005 and during the past one year 12,331 new cases were filed, raising the number of cases that came before the court for adjudication to 38,139. During the period of last one year 23,353 cases were disposed of and at present the number of pending cases stood at 14786.

The registrar said the automation of the court was in progress and a PC-I had already been submitted for provision of new computers to equip judges and staff of the court.

He said that the facility of e-filing of the cases would be shortly available to benefit the people. He said all information with respect to pending cases and cause list would be available on internet.