ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Anwar Zaheer Jamali on Monday upheld the objections of registrar’s office against a petition requesting the court to not only activate the proceedings of Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) but also disclose the number of pending references. On September 29, the CJP had reserved his ruling on an appeal against the Supreme Court registrar office’s order, wherein it had declared that the petition was not entertainable as, the petition, prima facie appeared to be a frivolous within the contemplation of Order XVII Rule 5 of the Supreme Court Rules 1980. However, now the chief justice ruled that the contentions of Human Rights Committee Chairman of Pakistan Bar Council Raheel Kamran, the petitioner, are in violation of the spirit of Article 209 and Article 211 of the constitution read with the SJC Procedure of Enquiry 2005. “It is one of the important aspect of proceedings before the Supreme Judicial Council that at every stage of its proceedings, within the parameter of prescribed under Rule 13 (ibid) and other enabling provisions, complete confidentiality and secrecy is to be maintained about actions taken by the Council, and Article 19-A, which itself provides for reasonable restrictions, will have no over-riding effect to it,” Justice Jamali observed in his two-page ruling announced on Monday. However, the petitioner told Daily Times that he is considering filing a review in the matter. “Such decision, coming from the chief justice, who has been very vocal about activism of SCJ and has been talking about judicial responsibilities, is disappointing,” he said, adding that the ruling is contrary to the precedent set in the former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s case. The ruling was reserved after in-camera hearing in the chamber in which the appellant argued in favour of his petition, saying that he is not seeking detailed information regarding proceedings against judges rather every citizen has a fundamental right to access information of all matters relating to public importance envisaged under Article 19-A of the constitution. He also pleaded to disclose the basic information regarding the ‘total number’ of references pending before SJC with the request to chief justice that he should not hear the appeal as he is the chairman SJC. Raheel Kamran in his petition had contended that the SJC has hardly been functional since the date it was constituted. The petition had further contended that it may be in the public interest to withhold information about the nature of any particular complaint in order to avoid scandalizing a judge until he serves on the bench adding that there is no justification withholding information regarding the total number of complaints instituted in council. The petition said that both the bar and bench have voiced their concerns about the state of affairs, adding that the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) in its meeting dated June 13, 2015 had also adopted a resolution requesting the SJC to decide references currently pending before it on merits and without any further delay. SJC, established under Article 209 of constitution, aims to probe into allegations levelled against judges of the superior courts and different high courts for either alleged misconduct, or an inability to perform their duties for reasons of mental or physical incapacity.