A statute limiting the Chief Justice’s power was signed into law despite the Supreme Court being on recess.
This comes despite repeated requests from the Supreme Court to suspend the measure and President Alvi’s refusal to sign it.
ISLAMABAD: On Friday, despite the Supreme Court’s orders to halt its implementation, the Supreme Court (Practise and Procedure) Act 2023 became law. This legislation intended to limit the powers of the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu action and to create benches.
The tweet came from the National Assembly’s official account. This Act, the Supreme Court (Practise and Procedure) Act, 2023 of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), will be regarded to have been assented by the President with effect from April 21, 2023, pursuant to Clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution.
Once the bill’s approval process was finalized, the NA Secretariat issued an official announcement and informed the Printing Corporation through a gazette.
It’s important to remember that twice the law was sent back to parliament unsigned by President Dr. Arif Alvi.
The Supreme Court “pre-emptively” blocked a law that would have limited the ability of the Chief Justice to convene special courts on his own initiative.
The court declared that “the act that comes into being shall not have, take or be given any effect (and) not be acted upon in any manner” regardless of whether the measure had obtained the president’s assent or was considered to have received it.
After the Supreme Court’s decision to order elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa within 90 days of their dissolution, among other decisions, the federal government passed the Act to limit the CJP’s powers to take suo motu notice and to constitute benches on his own.
The federal cabinet revised the CJP’s suo motu powers, stating that the highest judge of the country cannot automatically commence suo motu proceedings, and proposing that three Supreme Court justices would determine if the court should initiate suo motu proceedings in a given subject.
In accordance with the law’s section 2 (constitution of benches), “every cause, appeal, or matter before the Supreme Court shall be heard and disposed of by a bench constituted by the committee comprising the chief justice of Pakistan and two senior-most judges, in order of seniority.” An additional provision states that “decisions of the committee shall be by majority.”
According to the bill’s proposed Section 3, the committee established in Section 2 must first review any case that calls for the Supreme Court to exercise its original jurisdiction under clause (3) of Article 184 (original jurisdiction by the Supreme Court).
A bench of not less than three judges of the Supreme Court, which may also include the members of the committee, shall be formed for adjudication of the matter if the committee determines that a question of public importance pertaining to the enforcement of any of the fundamental rights conferred by Chapter I of Part II of the Constitution is involved.
