Five judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) — namely Justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Babar Sattar, Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri, Saman Rifat and Arbab Tahir — submitted separate petitions at the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday.
So far, Dawn.com has only been able to get a copy of Justice Kayani’s petition and the contents of other pleas are yet to be confirmed.
In his petition, Justice Kayani requested the SC to declare that administrative powers cannot be used to undermine judges’ powers and that a high court chief justice is not authorised to constitute benches or remove judges from the roster at will.
The SC was also urged to declare “that the constitution of benches, transfer of cases and issuance of roster can only be done in accordance with the rules adopted by the entirety of the High Court under Article 202 (rules of procedure), read with Article 192(1) (constitution of high court) of the Constitution”.
The petition also demanded that the apex court declare that the responsibilities of forming a bench, issuing a roster and transferring cases cannot rest solely in the chief justice’s hands.
More to follow