ISLAMABAD:
The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected former chief justice Jawwad S Khawaja’s application to defer the hearing of an intra-court appeal against the ruling on military trials of civilians, stating that the plea lacked merit and justification to delay the proceedings.
The seven-member bench, led by Justice Aminuddin Khan, also imposed a fine of Rs20,000 on the petitioner. The bench noted in its written order that the application failed to take into account the plight of the accused individuals who have been languishing in prison for one-and-a-half years.
The bench said that a request was made for postponing the hearing of the intra-court appeals on the military courts case until the decision on the petition against the 26th Constitutional Amendment. The bench raised the query as to what was the connection between the amendment and the current case.
The petitioner’s lawyer replied that the constitutional bench was formed under the 26th Amendment, and if the apex court declared this amendment null and void, the bench’s decisions would no longer hold.
“We were surprised to hear this kind of argument,” the order stated. “If any legislation is in conflict with the Constitution or any provision of the Constitutional Amendment is declared null and void, even then the judicial decisions are protected,” it added.
The bench noted that the current Supreme Court was working under the 26th Constitutional Amendment. It had been seen, the order added, the parties had tried to obstruct the judicial proceedings before.
First objection was raised to the bench, and when a seven-member larger bench was formed, the parties expressed their trust in it. The parties also objected to the appointment of a lawyer for the petitioner, besides a plea was also made to show the proceedings live, which was later withdrawn.
The purpose of these requests was to delay the proceedings until the decision on the 26th Amendment. This request [Khawaja’s petition] was not filed in good faith, the order said, adding that the application was baseless and is dismissed with a fine of Rs20,00.
“This application has been filed ignoring the rights of the accused who are behind the bars for more than one and a half year. Even otherwise, learned counsel has not shown any impact of the decision upon the petition challenging 26th amendment upon these appeals, therefore, this application being frivolous one is dismissed with a cost of Rs20,000,” the written order said.
