The Supreme Court has withdrawn the contempt notice issued against Additional Registrar (Judicial) Nazar Abbas and referred the case to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi for the formation of a full court to address the powers of committees responsible for fixing cases before benches.
In a 20-page verdict issued by a two-member bench, comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, the court stated that the Additional Registrar (Judicial) did not deliberately avoid the fixation of cases as directed in the court order, and the show-cause notice issued for contempt proceedings was therefore discharged.
The case centers on the misallocation of cases by Nazar Abbas, including a challenge to the vires of the Customs Act 1969, where cases meant for the Supreme Court’s constitutional bench were wrongly assigned to a regular bench. Subsequent hearings revealed that the case was not fixed for hearing initially but was later transferred to the constitutional bench.
In today’s judgment, the court accepted the argument presented by Abbas in his reply to the show-cause notice, where he stated that he had no authority to constitute a bench of judges and could only inform the competent authority — which he did in a timely manner.
“The alleged contemner’s failure to fix the case before the Bench specified in the court order does not constitute a contumacious act on his part,” the verdict stated.
The judgment further noted that there was no evidence suggesting Abbas had any personal interest in the case or had acted with malicious intent. “Upon examining the case of the present alleged contemner, the Additional Registrar (Judicial) of this Court, we find that he did not deliberately avoid the fixation of the cases before the Bench as directed in the court order. There is no indication of mala fide intent in his actions, nor did he act with the intention of causing damage to any of the parties to the case.”
The verdict also questioned the authority and role of committees in deciding which bench should hear specific cases, leading to the referral of the matter to CJP Yahya Afridi for further deliberation by a full court.
