LAHORE: Chief Justice Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Saturday observed that the judiciary had to keep a check on arbitrary exercise of powers and promote rule of law in the country.
Presiding over a meeting of the National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC) in Supreme Court building at Lahore registry, the CJP said it was the duty of the state to ensure inexpensive and expeditious justice to people.
Chief Justice said the movement for restoration of independent judiciary, rule of law and supremacy of constitution had heightened the expectations of the people and to respond increasing confidence in judiciary, the National Judicial Policy was launched which provided strategies to ensure provision of expeditious and inexpensive justice to all segment of society without fear and favour.
The committee showed displeasure on a lukewarm response of the government on its recommendations on the numerical strength of judicial officers and observed that the government should honor the recommendations of the apex body and immediately increase the number of the judicial officers to allay the concerns of an ordinary litigant and to meet the challenges of ever increasing litigation.
The committee reviews the performance of district judiciary and high courts presented the statistics of old cases and details of cases pending adjudication in each district in the country.
The committee took a serious notice of prevailing law and order situation and terrorist attacks on judicial officers and asked the provincial governments to take all possible measures for protection of judicial officers, enabling them to discharge their duties in a free and fair manner.
The committee also asked the retired judges of the superior judiciary to maintain the highest standards of decorum and relinquish the charge of posts which lowered their status.
The committee reviewing the status of the challans took a serious notice of a large number of cases where challans are not submitted timely. The committee observed that the police/investigating agencies were duty bound to submit challans within 14 days after registration of an FIR.
The committee was of the view that non-completion of investigation or non-submission of challan in a statutory period was a major cause of delays in the disposal of the cases, which earned the judiciary a bad name.
The committee also took a serious note of police attitude to avoid registration of FIRs even in cognizable offences to show a low crime rate. The committee directed the concerned authorities to issue directions to all Station House Officers (SHOs) to lodge FIRs of cognizable offenses reported to them and in case of non-compliance they should be taken to task. The committee observed that in certain cases criminals were extorting money from citizens by compelling them to send extortion money through transfer schemes launched by cellular companies. The committee therefore asked the concerned authorities to monitor the affairs of such companies and make it compulsory for cellular companies to maintain biometric record of money senders and receivers. The committee directed the concerned authorities to proceed for recovery of public revenue where there was no stay order granted by any court or has expired by efflux of time as provided in the constitution. The CJP directed the high courts to identify all such cases and make efforts to decide the same as early as possible.
The committee appreciated the regular visit of the district and sessions judges to jails and deciding petty cases during their visits.
The committee also review the date of offenders released on probation and appreciated that after pursuing the relevant governments the institutional strength of Probation & Parole Department had been improved.
The meeting was attended by Chief Justices of the High Courts, Chief Justice Federal Shariat Court, Chief Justice Islamabad High Court, Chief Justice Supreme Court AJ&K, Chief Justice High Court AJ&K, Chief Judge Supreme Appellate Court Gilgit-Baltistan also attended the meeting.