Supreme Court issues show-cause notice to additional registrar over case scheduling delay

In a significant development, the Supreme Court’s senior-most Justice, Mansoor Ali Shah, issued a show-cause notice to Additional Registrar Nazar Abbas and summoned him to appear in person following the non-scheduling of a crucial case related to the powers of benches.

The case, which addresses constitutional and regular bench powers, was scheduled for a hearing on Monday. However, despite a clear directive from the court to include the case in the cause list, the matter was not listed, leading to a delay.

Barrister Salahuddin, representing one of the parties involved in the case, informed the court that he had travelled from Karachi specifically for this hearing but found that the cause list had not been issued as ordered. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah expressed concern over the lack of communication and instructed the immediate summoning of the additional registrar to clarify the situation.

During the hearing, Deputy Registrar Zulfiqar Ahmed explained that the Additional Registrar was on medical leave. However, Justice Shah questioned why the court’s directive to schedule the case had not been followed in the first place.

The Deputy Registrar further revealed that the Judges Committee had decided to schedule the case related to amendments for January 27 before the constitutional bench, a decision that Justice Shah expressed surprise over, as he had not been made aware of it despite being a committee member.

Justice Ayesha Malik raised concerns about the administrative committee bypassing a judicial order, questioning why the week’s cause list had been altered, particularly with tax cases initially scheduled for hearing.

The court has now directed the submission of the Judges Committee’s meeting minutes and any written instructions regarding the changes to the cause list. Additionally, the court demanded an explanation from the additional registrar as to why the case was not scheduled as per the original directive.