Justice Khosa’s incumbency: Real change has occurred at Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: A real change has taken place at the Supreme Court after Justice Asif Saeed Khosa’s assumed the mantle of the topmost judge of Pakistan with the focus being solely on clearing the huge pendency of cases at a fast track.

“Everything is so far on the right course in the apex court,” reputed lawyer Abid Hussain Minto commented to The News when contacted. “Justice Khosa is precisely doing what he has declared in the very beginning: thus far, he has not taken even a single suo motu notice. He has stated that he would not resort to this course unless it was very necessary and he is adhering to his announcement.”

The lawyer said the chief justice was interpreting the Constitution and law clearly. “Some judges resort to judicial activism through their judgments while others do so in some other ways.”

Another senior lawyer Ikram Chaudhry told The News that it was essential to maintain a “balance” that was visible now. He said that Justice Khosa’s attention was on doing away with the accumulation of cases, awaiting disposal.

He said that the chief justice was issuing guidelines to other courts for reducing the workload that has piled up over the years.

During his first 17 days’ in office, Justice Khosa has not taken even a single suo motu notice and no new petition invoking the original jurisdiction of the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution has come before him for entertainment. Perhaps the message that he conveyed at the very outset has also been clearly received by litigants, who always rush to the Supreme Court seeking its intervention under this specific provision.

Two Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders including Khurram Sher Zaman and Usman Dar did file a petition against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) supremo Asif Ali Zardari under this article but it was quickly returned by the court registrar with the observation that the matter should be raised at a relevant forum instead of the apex court. The petitioners did not appeal against his determination.

While addressing the full court reference on the eve of retirement of his predecessor, Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Khosa had stated: “I would like to build some dams, a dam against undue and unnecessary delays in judicial determination of cases, a dam against frivolous litigation and a dam against fake witnesses and false testimonies and would also try to retire a debt, the debt of pending cases which must be decided at the earliest possible. There are about 1.9 million cases awaiting disposal before all the courts put together and to handle such a huge number of cases there are only about 3,000 judges and magistrates available from top to bottom.”

The apex court has seen a smooth sailing and a busy place, concentrating on prompt disposal of pending cases. During Justice Khosa’s tenure, there is no frequent, instant summoning of senior federal and provincial officials; and the executive is freely doing its own duty. There was a great fear of elements gripping them as well.

During this short stint, while presiding over benches, Justice Khosa handed some landmark judgments. He has consistently spoken against false witnesses, poor performance of courts and incompetence of police. He is trying to purge the judicial system of these ills that are impinging hard on the criminal justice system. “A judge unable to dispense justice must go home; how a high court can ignore important evidence in a rape case; high court is a senior court; in this case, it ignored evidence; a judge’s job is to do justice, those who cannot do that should go home,” he remarked in one case.

He has announced that the Supreme Court would dispose of criminal appeals within three months and said that he would soon bring the total number of filed cases in the apex court down to zero. The fresh institution of cases in the apex court is nil, which means the Supreme Court is dealing with the pending cases.