LAHORE, Oct 31: A new judges’ case involving inter se seniority of Lahore High Court judges is up for hearing before the Supreme Court at Islamabad from Nov 5.

A joint petition moved by Justices Amir Alam Khan and Karamat Nazir Bhandari of the LHC in the original jurisdiction of the apex court was admitted by a five-member bench for hearing by a larger bench. Chief Justice Irshad Hasan Khan has now constituted a seven-member bench with himself at its head. Justices Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, Chaudhry Muhammad Arif and Munir A Sheikh are among its members. A petition moved by Justice Fakharun Nisa Khokhar of the high court is also before the bench.

At the heart of the controversy is an April 1998 Law Ministry missive informing the LHC registrar of (former) president Rafiq Tarar’s decision that Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi and two other judges (since retired), who were appointed additional judges in 1992 and relieved in 1994 but reappointed in 1996, would have their seniority reckoned from the date of their first appointment as additional judge, that is, Aug 26, 1992.

The letter was acted upon and, as a consequence, Justice Abbasi is now senior to all LHC judges except Justices Mian Nazir Akhtar and Khalilur Rahman Ramday.

Justices Khan and Bhandari were appointed additional judges in August 1994 and confirmed as permanent judges in March 1996. Their cases were reprocessed in the wake of the 1996 Judges Case verdict of the Supreme Court and they were administered a new oath as permanent judges in September 1996.

Justice Abbasi, who was a petitioner in the Judges Case, was also reconsidered and reappointed as a permanent judge in October 1996 in the light of the verdict.

Justice Khokhar was appointed additional judge in August 1994 and was first confirmed in June 1995. She was also given a new oath as a permanent judge in September 1996 but was placed next to Justices Khan and Bhandari in order of seniority. The moot points involved are whether a presidential order or an executive fiat can redraw the judges’ order of seniority or condone a break occurring between two stints of a judge separated by legal practice? Whether inter se seniority, having been determined once, can at all be altered? And whether the permanent chief justices, appointed in pursuance of the 1996 SC judgment, were also empowered to change the seniority of judges elevated on the recommendation of acting chief justices but found by them to be competent and qualified.