Difficulties do exist in action against corrupt judges: LHC CJ

LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Saturday said there are difficulties in taking action against corrupt judges.

He said corruption would be uprooted from the judiciary if courts continued dispensing justice.

Without mentioning the ongoing ‘strained’ relations between the bar and the bench in the wake of disciplinary action against some advocates by the court, the chief justice said bar councils were supposed to address professional and communal issues of lawyers as there was no room for politics in the justice system.

The chief justice was addressing a district judiciary conference on the “Rule of Law” held in a local hotel in connection with the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Lahore High Court.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah said the bar and the bench were the wheels of the system but problems would arise if any of them crossed its limits. He admitted that the country’s justice system still needed to be stronger and the district judiciary was the backbone of the system. He said a computerised automation system was being introduced in the LHC and the district judiciary as well.

Besides the sitting judges of the LHC, retired judges Ijaz Nisar and Fazal Karim, senior lawyer Abid Hasan Manti, SM Zafar, representatives of civil society also attended the conference.

Earlier at the LHC, the chief justice inaugurated a museum and unveiled a commemorative postage stamp issued in respect of sesquicentennial (150th years) celebrations of the Lahore High Court.

The chief justice said the sesquicentennial celebrations were not only for the judges but also for the lawyers, district judiciary, judicial staff and litigants.