A full court meeting held in the Supreme Court decided that in order to clear the backlog of pending cases, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, who retired a few months ago, may be requested to rejoin the bench as ad hoc judges under Article 182 of the constitution to work for a period of one and two years, respectively.
The chief justice made the proposal, which the full court meeting unanimously agreed to. Article 182 of the constitution stipulates that if at any time it is not possible for want of quorum of judges of the Supreme Court to hold or to continue any sitting of the court, or for any other reason it is necessary to temporarily increase the number of judges of the SC, the chief justice of Pakistan, in consultation with the Judicial Commission as provided in clause (2) of Article 175 A with the approval of the president, can request a person who has held the office of a judge of that court to attend sittings as an ad hoc judge, for the necessary time period.
It is learnt that Justice Ramday and Justice Jaffery have accepted the proposal in wider institutional interest. The implementation of the measure is likely to help clear the backlog of pending cases. The meeting, chaired by the CJP, noted that the pending cases at the principal seat in Islamabad and branch registries in Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta have increased due to certain reasons.
It was felt that during the last one year, many important constitutional and other cases took much of the court’s time. “In one instance, the 18th Amendment case was heard for about more than five months. Similarly, the NRO review case, the Bank of Punjab case and cases like the case of the Hajj scandal and Reko Diq were heard by larger benches. In addition to that, the regular hearing of suo motu cases by various benches also led to a delay in disposal of other cases,” a press release said while quoting the observation of the full court meeting. – Daily Times
