ISLAMABAD: Two senior Judges of the Supreme Court, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Yahya Afridi on Tuesday refused to hear cases on account of sudden change in composition of their benches.
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According to multiple media reports, Justicde Qazi Faez Isa got infuriated when a two-judges bench was re-constituted and reduced to single judge bench.
According to Tuesday’s roster, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar, who is junior than Justice Afridi, is now heading the bench along with Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, who was sitting with Justice Isa on Monday.
Justice Isa summoned the Registrar and additional Registrar and asked “why have the cases of the year 2021 been fixed for hearing before my bench?”
“Why are the new cases fixed for hearing instead of the old ones? Why has my two-member bench been changed?” he asked.
“Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi was in the yesterday’s list. Today, Justice Yahya Afridi has been included in the bench,” he said. To this, the Registrar reportedly replied “all cases are fixed before benches by the Chief Justice.”
He directed the registrar to appear with all the records.
“Why are the cases not fixed for hearing according to the ‘first come first serve’ principle? What answer shall I give to the people?” he stated.
How can transparency be ensured when a registrar transfers a case from one bench to another, he asked. “Can I telephone the registrar and seek fixation of a case in a particular bench.”
Justice Yahya Afridi asked the question is that why Justice Hassan Rizvi was removed from the bench of the under hearing case.
After listening to arguments given by Registrar Supreme Court, both judges refused to hear cases for today. Both judges in their written order said “if benches are changed arbitrary and without reason then it would create doubts in litigants/ public minds.”
