Justice system
woes
Chief Justice of
Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar while addressing a ceremony in connection with the
Golden Jubilee anniversary of the Supreme Court Bar Association in Lahore on
October 12, 2018 castigated judges’ incompetence and failure to fulfill their
responsibilities, thereby causing unacceptable delays in the dispensation of
justice. Adding another dimension to his charge, the CJP revealed that each
judge cost the exchequer Rs 55,000 per day and questioned whether judges could
justify their hefty salaries. He complained that judges keep cases lingering on
instead of deciding them, paving the way for such incompetent judges to join
hands with lawyers in exploiting the poor litigants. He candidly admitted that
the ongoing criticism of the judiciary was justified to some extent. He called
on the judiciary to do some soul searching and introspect on streamlining the
judicial system while working tirelessly to give the judiciary its rightful
dignified status. In particular, the CJP pointed to inordinate delays in cases
because of delayed hearings, repeated adjournments, etc, which left citizens
waiting interminably for justice. As part of the streamlining, the CJP pointed
out that several nineteenth century civil laws had become outdated and did not
answer to the needs of modern society. The CJP regretted that he was unable to
find solutions to issues taken notice of. In the case of the missing persons,
the CJP pointed to his unprecedented step of summoning all the heads of the
military and civil intelligence agencies and security forces and instructing
them to file affidavits regarding the missing persons so that they could be
proceeded against if their affidavits were proved wrong. Mutilated bodies of
missing persons were described by the CJP as extrajudicial killings, a practice
without any justification in our laws or in the civilised world.
While the CJP’s
candour and forthrightness regarding the ills and woes of our justice system
must be appreciated, nothing he said is new or unknown generally to the public.
However, one wonders why it has taken the CJP till the eve of his retirement to
expose these glaring anomalies. Admittedly, the old adage of better late than
never applies, but one only wishes the honourable CJP had paid a little more
attention during his tenure to the mountain of pending cases in our justice
system, with the Supreme Court alone groaning under the burden of some 40,000
pending cases. Perhaps and with utmost respect if the CJP had paid more
attention to this problem instead of what the critics call trying to fix everything
in state and society and ending up fixing nothing, things may not have reached
such a pass. The critics of our jurisprudence of recent years (since the
restoration of the judiciary as a result of the lawyers’ movement) also point
to the excessive use of suo motu powers that deprive litigants of the
established tiers of the justice system that provide for appeals from lower
court judgements to higher courts. Suo motu notices of the Supreme Court in
particular leave no room for appeal against the apex court’s verdicts. The
underlying motivation, which the CJP alluded to in his remarks, is to ensure
the fundamental rights of the people under Article 184(3). But the problem with
this formulation is that fundamental rights are such a broad category that
there are few limits on the courts’ intervention if the definition is taken
literally. In the process, as the experience of the recent past indicates, well
intentioned judicial interventions often end up encroaching on the domain of
the executive and even parliament, thereby weakening and eroding the separation
of powers that is fundamental to our constitutional construct. Judicial
activism in the recent past needs to reflect on the limits it has discovered in
practice on the ability of the judiciary to intervene in any and all situations
on the plea of fundamental rights and correct perceived wrongs. The CJP himself
has sought to define contours on exercise of such powers by the court and the
court is expected to address this issue, hopefully soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment