Issues of maintainability, merits of petition fall within court’s domain: SC judge

ISLAMABAD: Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah said the maintainability and the merits of a petition are justiciable issues and fall within the domain of the Court, and such an exercise of power by the Registrar falls outside his domain under the Rules.

The Supreme Court judge stated that while passing an order against the Registrar objections raised on the petition of Qausain Faisal seeking to restrain Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and the PTI former ministers from making defamatory and derogatory statements in public or the social media against the army, superior judiciary, and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Justice Mansoor had heard Qausain’s appeal on July 18 in the chambers; the order of it was uploaded on the SC’s website on Wednesday. Justice Mansoor overruled the grounds of the impugned order of the Registrar and said they may be determined by the Court on the judicial side.

“Certain miscellaneous matters, that are also essentially procedural in character, regarding which the Registrar can exercise the powers of the Court are listed in Rule 1 of Order V of the Rules, but the matters listed there (sub-rules 1 to 31) do not authorize the Registrar to decide upon the maintainability of a constitution petition filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution,” said the order.

It further said that the grounds/objections of the impugned order of the Registrar, which touch upon the questions of maintainability and merits of the case, can only be examined by the Court through a judicial determination and not by the Registrar or a Judge hearing an appeal-in-chambers, like the present one against the order of the Registrar, on the administrative side.

The order said that under the Rules, the Registrar is to perform certain functions that are mostly administrative and ministerial in nature. In performing the administrative function of “registration of petitions, appeals, suits and other matters” under Rule 1(6) of Order V of the Rules, the Registrar has been conferred: (i) the power under Rule 10(a) of Order III “to require any plaint, petition of appeal, petition for leave to appeal or other matters” presented to the Court, to be amended in accordance with the practice and procedure of the Court, and (ii) the power under Rule 7 of Order VII to “decline to receive any document” which is presented otherwise than in accordance with the Rules.

The powers of the Registrar under Rule 10 of Order III alongwith Rule 7 of Order VII of the Rules are purely administrative in character, which allow him to enforce the practice and procedure of the Court in relation to the presentation of cases and ensure that the form of the pleadings and the documents filed therewith is as per the Rules.

The justiciability of the legal and factual questions raised in the petitions is a matter for the Court to deal with and decide upon. Registrar enjoying administrative powers under the Rules cannot assume the core adjudicatory role of the Court under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.

There is no provision in the Rules that empowers the Registrar to touch upon the maintainability of a petition, other than ensuring its proper form and presentation as per the practice and procedure of the Court provided in the Rules, it added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022