ISLAMABAD: Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued notices to the minister and secretary housing and works division on a petition filed by 33 judges of the subordinate judiciary against a recent notification which made them ineligible to retain official residences on the Estate Office (EO) pool.

Justice Siddiqui also issued a stay order in the matter but clarified that since the house retained by him was also on the EO pool the restraining order would not apply on it.

In the order, the judge observed that the judicial officers working in the sessions and special courts of Islamabad capital territory were fully entitled to government residences.

33 judges of lower judiciary have challenged March 28 notification making them ineligible to retain official residences in capital

According to the court order, the Estate Office, all of a sudden, had reversed the decision on the entitlement of the district judiciary to retain official residence which was a contemptuous act.

The court sought reply from the minister and secretary housing as well as the estate officer till a fortnight and adjourned further proceedings.

The judges in their petition challenged the recent notification issued by the EO excluding them from retaining official residences.

Three district and sessions judges, nine additional district and sessions judges and four senior civil judges are among the petitioners.

The judicial officers maintained that in March 2008 the EO had issued a notification related to the entitlement of subordinate judiciary to official residences.

They contended that the judicial officers joined the sessions courts in accordance with the Islamabad Judicial Service Rules 2011 and were then allotted official accommodations.

Their house rent was being adjusted as rent for the accommodations whereas the judicial officers were paying for the repair and maintenance of the houses.

The petition said the EO on March 28, 2018, withdrew the notification of March 2008. Subsequently, they became ineligible to retain the official accommodations.

The petitioners requested the court to set aside the recent notification till the final decision on their petition.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2018