ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court referred the matter for constituting a larger bench to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) for hearing of Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s and others’ review petitions against the Presidential Reference.

A six-judge larger bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, on Monday announced its reserved judgment with 5-1 majority.

Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik disagreed, saying he will write a dissenting note.

“I have read the order. I agree with the conclusion drawn regarding numerical strength of review Bench. However, I would attach my separate note for remaining findings/observations given in the order,” wrote Justice Manzoor.

The bench on December 10, 2020 had reserved order on the composition of the bench. Justice Qazi Faez Isa, various bar councils and associations, and Sarina Isa filed review petitions against the apex court’s judgment against Presidential Reference.

The judgment said the review jurisdiction can be invoked only in relation to the judgments of this Court, namely, unanimous and majority judgments.

It also said: “As a matter of the current law and practice of the Court: a) for the purposes of Order XXVI, Rule 8, the minimum numerical strength of the Bench that delivered the judgment or order under review is the numerical strength of the Bench which heard and decided the original matter, regardless of whether the judgment under review was passed unanimously or by majority.”

“The review Bench should comprise the author Judge, if still on the Court, as its member, and in case he is unavailable then any other Judge who agreed with the author Judge should be included in the Bench.” The court noted that as a matter of law and settled practice it is for the Chief Justice, as the master of the roster, to determine the composition of a Bench and he may, for like reason, constitute a larger Bench for hearing the review petition.

“My understanding of the court rules is that the review petitions are always posted to the same bench,” Sarina Isa had said, asking if it was possible that the review petition was heard after amending these rules. Justice Bandial had observed that different court rules did not exist independently, rather they had to be interpreted harmoniously, adding that under Order 11 of the court rules, it was the chief justice who constituted the bench and which was supposed to be accepted by all.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021