ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday resumed the hearing of petitions against the recently passed contempt of court law, DawnNews reported.

A five-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and including Justice Shakirullah Jan, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Jawad S Khawaja and Justice Tassadduq Hussain Jilani, was hearing 27 identical petitions challenging the Contempt of Court Act, 2012.

During the hearing, petitioner Rana Mohammad Jameel presented his arguments before the bench.

Another petitioner, Shahid Orakzai, said that the new contempt law would have to be read in the light of the Constitution.

Orakzai moreover said that the new law had endangered the Constitution and that it should have been about enhancing respect for the courts.

Justice Khilji said all four provinces had accepted the new law, adding that, the law had become applicable in the provinces.

In his remarks, Chief Justice Iftikhar said that the trend in the country was such that if a decision was in favour of a party, the party considered it fair, but if it was against that party, the same party considered it unjust.

He further remarked that if the court decided against a party, that party became an enemy of the court.

Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court had observed that sparing powerful people by according immunity would only encourage a trend of not respecting the dignity and sanctity of courts and turn their orders into a mere piece of paper.

If one person was spared another would come to demand the same treatment, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had observed. “This will help encourage a trend of not accepting the dignity and respect of the courts and making our orders a piece of paper.”

The law

The contempt of court law had been hurriedly passed by the ruling government in a bid to protect the incumbent prime minister from facing the same fate as his predecessor.

The law exempts “holders of public office” from the mischief of contempt in “exercise of powers and performance of functions” and allows for suspension of a sentence during the pendency of an appeal.

The main opposition party in the National Assembly, the PML-N, had objected to the passage of the law saying it was not sent to relevant standing committees for deliberation.

Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court had observed that sparing powerful people by according immunity would only encourage a trend of not respecting the dignity and sanctity of courts and turn their orders into a mere piece of paper.

If one person was spared another would come to demand the same treatment, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had observed. “This will help encourage a trend of not accepting the dignity and respect of the courts and making our orders a piece of paper.”

The petitions

In all there are 26 petitions against the act and one of the petitioners, Baz Muhammad Kakar, contends that Section 3(i) of the new act curtailed the power and jurisdiction of the court under Article 204(2) of the Constitution to punish ‘any person’ who abused, interfered with or obstructed the process of the court in any way or disobeyed any order of the court.

It also violated Article 25 which guaranteed equal protection of the laws, he said.

A petition filed on behalf of the Save Judiciary Movement by Advocate Hashmat Habib pleads that the law should be struck down because it goes against the Quran and Sunnah and the Contempt of Court Ordinance of 2003 be restored.