EXCLUSIVE: ‘Serious concerns about independence of benches’, more Supreme Court judges write alarming letter

Weeks after Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar’s concerns hinted at possible dissent within the quarters of the Supreme Court (SC), more judges of the apex court have openly expressed discontentment in a letter to the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP).

As per the details, Justice Shah, Justice Ayesha Malik and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi have written to the top judge, saying they were “surprised and disturbed” that their cases were not fixed for hearing on Monday despite a judicial order being issued in this regard last week.

“On 16.1.2025, the Bench stood reconstituted and one of the members (Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, J.) being the author of the impugned judgment, when he was at the High Court of Sindh, could not hear the matter. Therefore, we directed the office to fix the case before the earlier bench on Monday, the 20th January, 2025 at 1:00 pm,” read the letter.

It went on to say that on Monday, they were informed that the bunch of cases had not been fixed.

“We have also been informed that the matter was taken up by the Committee constituted under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023 ("Committee") on 17 January 2025 at 12 noon. One of us (Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah), being a member of the Committee, verbally communicated to the Chair of the Committee that as he has passed the judicial order, his view is on the record which may be considered as it is and he need not be personally present in the meeting.”

“We are surprised and disturbed that inspite of a judicial order, the cases have not been fixed for hearing before any bench today i.e. 20.01.2025 It is noted with concern that a three member bench had already been constituted to hear the case by the Committee which heard the case on 13.01.2025. On 16.01.2025 the new Bench could not hear the case due to the reason explained above and the Court simply directed that the earlier Bench, constituted by the Committee, to hear the matter on 20.01.2025 being part heard, In this background there was firstly no need for the Committee to take up the matter as the office was to simply fix the case before the earlier bench as it was a part heard matter. Even if the Committee took up the matter, it could have once again constituted the same Bench as constituted earlier and as mentioned in the judicial order and fix the case for 20.01.2025. Or the Committee could have reconstituted the Bench by a third member instead of Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi,” read the letter.

The judges went on to say that the committee, in any case, could not ignore the dictate of a judicial order and was bound to fix the case for hearing.

“We are not aware of the order passed by the Committee and nothing has been communicated to us. We have also noticed that the cause list of our Bench for the entire week has been changed where all the cases fixed by the Court has been removed from the cause list without there being any order passed to this effect,” it added.

The letter expressed concern over how the failure to comply with a judicial order “undermined the institution’s integrity” and defied the law against administrative orders taking away jurisdiction of the bench concerned. “It also raises serious concerns about the independence of the Benches,” it said, adding that such non-compliance constituted as contempt of court while eroding public confidence in the judiciary.

The judges also went on to demand compliance with the January 16 judicial order to “maintain independence, transparency, comity of judges, and smooth functioning of the court”.