ISLAMABAD, July 23: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Monday declined to hear a private matter of senior counsel Sharifuddin Pirzada, who had defended the presidential reference against him before a 13-member bench, directing the Supreme Court office instead to put it before some other bench.

The chief justice, who presided on Monday over a bench after a gap of four months, heard 13 different cases, granting bail in two cases and adjourning the hearing in six cases. The bench also comprised Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.

On Monday when the case concerning ratification of a lease was taken up by the bench on an appeal of the Cantonment Board Rawalpindi against the Northern Industries (Pvt) Ltd, Advocate Ibrahim Satti, also on the government panel in the reference case, came to the rostrum followed by Mr Pirzada.

Without looking at the counsel, the bench ordered adjournment of the case to be fixed before some other bench leaving both lawyers with no option but to return back to their seats.

Later Mr Satti told Dawn that the cantonment board had challenged the decision of the Lahore High Court before the apex court against converting some 200 acres to residential lands from commercial lands to the Northern Industries near Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi.

A large number of advocates witnessed the proceedings of Courtroom No 1.

The chief justice reached the court rather early to attend his office in a 1800cc Honda Accord car instead of a Mercedes Benz car that he regularly used before March 9.

Earlier, Justice Rana Bhagwandas in his chamber set aside the objections of the Registrar on a petition filed by the suspended Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Mirpurkhas Saleemullah Khan and issued instructions to fix his petition in the court.

The petitioner DIG had been assisting the Supreme Court in a human rights case regarding recovery of a peasant family of Munnu Bheel from the possession of an influential landlord in Sindh but he was suspended by the provincial government.