Removed SC addl registrar says he is facing double jeopardy

ISLAMABAD: Additional Registrar Judicial Nazar Abbas who was removed by the Supreme Court on account of serious lapse has contended that he is facing double jeopardy.

The copy of his Intra Court Appeal (ICA) challenging the show cause notice issued to him for contempt of court in a matter related to bench’s power case was surfaced on Saturday.

He submitted that on the one hand he had been issued show cause notice for non-fixation of CPLA Nos 836-K to 887-K of 2020 before the special bench in compliance of the order dated passed by the Regular Bench on January 16, 2025, while on the other hand, the press release of the Supreme Court whereby he had been made OSD noted that these cases were wrongly fixed by him before the Regular Bench which were to be fixed before the Constitutional Bench.

“So, I am facing double jeopardy,” he contended.

He further submitted that initially, the order dated January 13, 2025, when sent to the Webmaster, reflected January 27, 2025 as the next date of hearing which was shortly changed, and another order that reflected that the next date of hearing as January 16, 2025, was forwarded to the Webmaster.

He said that on January 16, the captioned petitions came up for hearing; however, as one of the members of the bench had authored the judgement, he had recused himself from hearing the matter.

“Consequently, the bench fixed the matter for January 20, 2025 by stating that the matter to be part[ly] heard for the first time, and also provided the composition of the bench before whom the matter should be fixed for hearing on January 20, 2025,” the additional registrar submitted .

He then said that the bench comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Ayesha A Malik and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbassi issued him show cause notice for non-fixation of the case and initiated contempt of court proceedings against him which is pending.

Later on, he said through office order dated January 21, 2025, issued under the instructions of the Registrar of the apex court, he had been made an OSC with immediate effect and directed to report to the office of the Registrar till further order. He prayed the apex court that his appeal be allowed and the Registrar order be set aside and show cause notice dated January 21 as well as contempt of court proceedings initiated against him be quashed.

Similarly, he prayed that order dated January 21, 2025 passed by the Registrar was declared to be without lawful jurisdiction, hence nullity in the eyes of justice.

He further prayed that pending the appeal, the proceedings of the criminal original petition of 2025 be stayed and the record the contempt of court proceedings be summoned for just decision of the case. On January 21, the Supreme Court removed the Additional Registrar (Judicial) Nazar Abbass on account of serious lapse and the Registrar has been directed to look into the matter.