Taking leverage of cyber regime the Supreme Court has decided on Wednesday to introduce e-court system in its principal seat of Islamabad to provide video link facility for lawyers’ arguments from four branch registries of the country.
While deliberating to minimize backlog of 40,535 cases in apex court, a full court meeting under the chair of recently elevated Chief Justice Sardar Asif Saeed Khan Khosa also resolved that special Benches should be constituted to deal with different categories of cases. During the meeting it was unanimously decided that adjournments should be discouraged whereas appeals should be fixed in chronological order and reviews must be fixed in the next week subject to availability of author Judges.
The Full Court also discussed agenda regarding video link connectivity between principal seat Supreme Court of Pakistan and its branch registries. It was resolved that e-court system should be established at principal seat Islamabad and its branch registries through application of latest video link connectivity within minimum possible period of time so as to facilitate lawyers to argue their cases from branch registries by availing this facility so as to minimize the backlog of cases at branch registries.
Deliberating on the issue of institution and disposal of cases in Supreme Court, the Full Court noted that during the period from September 01, 2018 to December 31, 2018 the Court decided 6,342 cases against the institution of 6,407 cases, leaving total pendency of 40,535 cases.
The Full Court showed satisfaction over institution and disposal rate and discussed different strategies, ways and means to bring improvements in case management for effective and smooth functioning of the Court and underlined the need to categorize the cases to diminish the backlog of cases and to make untiring efforts to improve dispensation of justice.
The Full Court meeting was held in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Islamabad under Chairmanship of the Chief Justice Sardar Asif Saeed Khan Khosa which was attended by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh, Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Yahya Afridi. Arbab Muhammad Arif, Registrar Supreme Court also attended the meeting.
On the occasion, Chief Justice Khosa thanked the Judges and expected healthy working relationship from the judges for cause of administration of justice, adding that he apprised the participants that the purpose of the meeting was to review the performance of the Supreme Court in terms of dispensation of justice and disposal of cases and to deliberate on the issues and matters pertaining to smooth functioning of the Court. Chief Justice Khosa appreciated the colleague judges commitment, devotion for cause of dispensation of justice to public at large so as to redress their grievances and to provide relief to them. The meeting also discussed different administrative and judicial issues relating to the internal working of the Court.
Published in Daily Times, February 7th 2019.