The Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the judges of subordinate courts to record evidence in all cases through appointment of commission in order to reduce heavy backlog of old/new cases and to achieve the goal of speedy disposal set out in National Judicial Policy, 2009.
The court in a directive issued to all District and Sessions Judges of the Punjab and Islamabad, the Registrar LHC said the decision was taken in meeting of National Judicial Policy Making Committee held in Lahore on October 11 and 12, last.
There are two modes of recording evidence of the witnesses as given in Code of Civil Procedure 1908, in first, the court is required to take the evidence of witnesses and in second, the court may issue a Commission for examination of witnesses. Therefore, the courts have the option to record the evidence in appropriate cases through Commission subject to the consent of parties by appointing an Advocate having reasonable experience.
The Registrar directed the D&SJs to prepare in consultation with President Bar Associations a list of panel of advocates including female advocates to be appointed as Commission for recording evidence of the witnesses. A reasonable fee of Commission will be fixed with the consent of parties keeping in view the financial/economic condition of the parties.
The evidence of parties through Commission shall be recorded inside courts within the view of concerned Presiding Officers so that objection raised by any party in cross-examination regarding any question put to the witnesses.