The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023, aimed at curtailing the powers of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take suo motu notices and constituting benches of the Supreme Court, was presented in the National Assembly on Tuesday after getting approved by the federal cabinet on.
According to the cabinet summary of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023, which is accessible on Dawn.com, there have been discussions among different forums regarding the exercise of original jurisdiction by the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.
During his speech in the National Assembly earlier in the day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised the dissenting note as a “ray of hope” and urged for appropriate legislation to be introduced in response to it.
Furthermore, the law minister, while addressing the parliament, stated that both the legal community and the general public had been requesting an amendment to the current law due to instances in the past where suo motu notices were taken on “petty issues”, with no opportunity for the affected party to appeal.
“This bill is allowing intra-court appeal now which was limited to review petition only in the past and its scope was very limited.”
The move came after Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail of the Supreme Court called for revisiting the power of the “one-man show” enjoyed by the CJP, saying that the country’s top court could not “be dependent on the solitary decision of one man”.
The two judges made the remarks in a detailed dissenting note for the top court’s March 1 verdict regarding holding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the two provincial assemblies have been dissolved.
About the Bill
Under the proposed bill, a three-member committee comprising the chief justice and two senior judges would be responsible for constituting benches and hearing matters before the court. Any matter invoking the use of Article 184(3) (suo motu) would first be placed before the committee, which would then decide whether it involved a question of public importance with reference to the enforcement of fundamental rights. If it did, a bench comprising not less than three judges would be constituted for the matter’s adjudication.
The bill also grants the right to appeal in suo motu cases, with the appeal’s fixation before the court within 14 days. Speaking on the floor of parliament, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the legal fraternity and the general public had been demanding an amendment to the existing law to address concerns over the use of suo motu notices.