Judge facing SJC reference seeks open trial

ISLAMABAD: One of the superior court judges facing a reference at the Supreme Judicial Council for alleged misconduct has urged the SJC to hold an open trial instead of conducting the proceedings behind closed doors.

A source privy to the development told Dawn that the senior judge of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) was given a show-cause notice by the SJC on Feb 15 and he is expected to appear before it on March 6.

The reference is based on a complaint made against the judge by some retired employee of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Case against IHC judge has been prepared on a complaint of a CDA employee
During the last proceedings, the judge had pleaded before the SJC that guarantees under Article 10A of the Constitution like fair trial and due process would only be ensured if his trial was held in the open court.

According to the source, the judge had argued that the requirement of in-camera proceedings was incorporated in the SJC rules in 2005 but Article 209, under which the SJC had been constituted, was silent about the closed door trial. Moreover, it should be the privilege of the accused whether to face open or in-camera proceedings.

Dawn made attempts to obtain comments from the SJC’s secretary, but in vain.

Against the backdrop of a demand by the legal fraternity, the then chief justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali had on Oct 31, 2015 announced re-activating the SJC for pursuing complaints pending with it for a long time.

Even rights activist Asma Jahangir had stated that the quality of the judges of lower courts was better than the judges posted in high courts.

Article 209 was invoked with the intent to hold accountability to purge the judiciary of members tainted with allegations. As a result, five judges from different high courts were shortlisted and served show-cause notices to respond to allegations of misconduct levelled against them by complainants.

On Feb 28, Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sid­hu of the Lahore High Court resigned two days ahead of appearing before the SJC in a corruption reference. He cited personal reasons for the resignation.

Besides, the Supreme Court is seized with a review petition filed by a member of the Pakistan Bar Council, Barrister Raheel Kamran Sheikh. Barrister Sheikh has asked the court to reconsider and set aside Justice Jamali’s Sept 29 order of dismissing his appeal moved with a request to inform the general public about the number of references pending with the SJC against the superior court judges. Rejecting Barrister Sheikh’s appeal, the former chief justice had held that the prayer made by the petitioner under Article 184(3) of the Constitution was violative of the spirit of Articles 209 and 211 read with the Procedure of Inquiry.

But the petitioner through his review petition has argued that the chief justice or any other judge of the Supreme Court who is also a member of the SJC could not hear and decide the fate of his constitutional petition containing questions about the entertainability, maintainability or merits of the case inasmuch as they form part of the respondent constitutional body.

Source: Dawn