LHC judge suspends his own chief justice order

LAHORE: In a rare development, Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan Thursday suspended the administrative order of his Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah under which Lahore High Court (LHC) registrar was allowed premature retirement, ruling that judiciary is no more a sacred cow and people could hold it accountable as well.

The court issued this order while hearing a petition challenging notification of LHC Registrar Khursheed Anwar Rizvi’s premature retirement and enjoying judicial allowance of Rs400,000.

Mr Rizvi sought premature retirement in order to secure hefty perks and privileges which he would not be able to get after his retirement as district & sessions judge. He was due to retire in April on attaining superannuation age but he sought premature retirement and the incumbent CJ approved the same. Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan suspended the impugned notification through a short order, announced on a petition moved by a lawyer and referred the petition to chief justice to form a larger bench to further proceed in the matter.

At the outset of the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique argued that under LHC establishment rules, a judicial officer cannot be appointed as a registrar, adding that an officer from the establishment of the high court could be appointed as registrar.

He claimed that Syed Khursheed Anwar Rizvi’s appointment was made in violation of the establishment’s rules. Mr Rizvi is also drawing Rs400,000 judicial allowance besides salary and other perks and privileges. The counsel contended that LHC Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had granted him premature retirement from February 3 in sheer violation of the rules as he is not part of the LHC establishment.

This irked the judge and he summoned Punjab advocate general who turned up after few minutes. AGP Shakilur Rehman Khan argued that administrative decisions of LHC chief justice could not be challenged through a writ petition.

Whether a chief justice could not be accounted for even if an administrative order was against the law, Justice Khan posed a query to the principal law officer.

AGP Khan said there were other remedies available on administrative side, including Administration Committee of the high court to deal with such matters. The constitutional jurisdiction of the high court could not be invoked against administrative power of the chief justice, he added.

He requested the court to hold in-camera proceedings of the case which the court turned down, ruling that no one could be deprived of his fundamental right of free and fair trial under Article 10-A of the Constitution. Judiciary is not a sacred cow that nobody could challenge the chief justice for his all his acts, right or wrong.