Chief Justice Lahore High Court, Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, taking serious notice of gratification by junior court staff including qasids, naib qasids attached with judges and administrative offices of the court, directed all private secretaries, readers, assistant registrars, deputy registrars and additional registrars to keep vigilant eye on such officials.
"It has been observed with deep concern that despite a reasonable increase in the pay and allowances of High Court employees, some of the qasids/naib qasids/other staff and officials working in the offices (of the court) are still involved in demanding illegal gratification from litigants/lawyers," he said.
The CJ asked officials of the court to detect such black sheep staff involved in receiving illegal gratification and report any such malpractice to the competent authority for necessary disciplinary action. "Such misdeeds on their part are not only earning bad name to the institution of LHC, but also being a serious offence and indiscipline, call for penal action against such employees," the order stated.
Taking serious notice of the situation, the competent authority has decided that in future no leniency shall be shown to any official found involved in receiving illegal gratification and malpractice in any manner. The circular also made it clear that if penal action is not taken against the delinquent staff, the officer in-charge of such corrupt staff will also be treated as an accomplice with the actual culprit committing the act.