SC adjourns pleas challenging suo motu law indefinitely

Author: News Desk

The hearing on petitions challenging the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023 were postponed on Thursday for an indefinite period.

According to the court staff, the bench could not proceed with Thursday’s hearing owing to the poor health of Justice Shahid Waheed, one of the eight judges hearing the case.

The larger bench is headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, and includes Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi besides Justice Shahid Waheed.

During the previous proceedings, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan had said there was some overlap between the SC (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023 and the SC (Review of Judgments and Orders) Act, 2023.

While welcoming the state’s top law officer’s statement that there was a need to harmonise the two new pieces of legislation with regard to the judiciary, the CJP had said that the government should consult with the SC when drafting laws that deal with the working of the court. The court was scheduled to resume hearing the matter on Thursday. The court staff came to the courtroom asking the lawyers as well as the AGP to meet CJP Bandial in the meeting room.

The AGP informed the CJP that no immediate legislation could be passed to harmonise the two laws since the parliament was engaged in the budget session. He requested the court to hear the case after the budget session. The larger bench of the SC had on April 13 “pre-emptively” stopped the enforcement of the bill while hearing a number of petitions filed against the legislation.

On March 29, the National Assembly passed the SC (Practice and Procedure), Bill 2023, which sought to reduce the CJP’s powers to take suo motu action and constitute benches. The Senate endorsed the bill a day later on March 30. The president, however, returned the bill to the parliament without signing it. However, the bill became a law on April 21, despite the top court’s order.