SC to have e-court system

Full court resolves to facilitate lawyers

By our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: The Full Court on Wednesday resolved that e-court system should be established at principal seat Islamabad and its registries through application of latest video link connectivity within minimum possible period of time so as to facilitate lawyers to argue their cases from branch registries by availing this facility. It will reduce backlog of cases at branch registries.

Meeting of Full Court was held here in the Supreme Court under the Chairmanship of Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan. It was attended by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Sh Azmat Saeed,Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Yahya Afridi. Arbab Muhammad Arif, Registrar Supreme Court, also attended the meeting.

During the meeting, judges congratulated the Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan on elevation to highest judicial office. The Chief Justice thanked the judges and expected healthy working relationship with them. The CJ apprised the participants that the purpose of the meeting was to review the performance of the Supreme Court in terms of dispensation of justice and disposal of cases and to deliberate on the issues and matters pertaining to smooth functioning of the Court.

Deliberating on the issue of institution and disposal of cases in Supreme Court, the Full Court noted that during the period from 01.09.2018 to 31.12.2018 the Court decided 6,342 cases against the institution of 6,407 cases, leaving total pendency of 40,535 cases. The Full Court showed satisfaction over institution and disposal rate and discussed different strategies, ways and means to bring improvements in case management.

Moreover, the Full Court resolved that special Benches should be constituted to deal with different categories of cases, adjournments should be discouraged, appeals should be fixed in chronological order and reviews must be fixed in the next week subject to availability of author Judges. Meanwhile, the Chief Justice thanked the judges and appreciated their commitment, devotion for cause of dispensation of justice to public at large so as to redress their grievances and to provide relief to them. The meeting also discussed different administrative and judicial issues relating to the internal working of the Court.