Most of the remedies in civil matters are subjected to discretion of a civil judge in the subordinate courts which are supposed to exercise discretionary powers without fear and favour across the board so as the incumbent Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Muhammad Qasim Khan has decided to keep the wheel of justice spinning while issuing directives on Tuesday to eliminate irregularities at the lower courts proceedings.
A few days ago, the LHC’s Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan found various irregularities in the judicial proceedings when he ordered to carry out inspections of District court of the Punjab province. In order to eliminate and overcome such irregularities, the Chief Justice on Tuesday issued a complete directive to make the court proceedings more effective and efficient.
According to a letter issued by the Directorate of District Judiciary of LHC to Sessions Judges across the province, all judicial officers have been directed that all types of interim orders be written by the Judicial Officers themselves, whether handwritten or dictated to the concerned staff. But no interim order will be written by the staff themselves.
The directive stated that after the final arguments, the cases will not be given an unnecessary/long date and the decision will be taken within the stipulated time prescribed under the Civil Procedural Code (CPC). It further said that the courts should not issue repeated notices on technical grounds. Chief Justice of the LHC directed that judicial officers will hear, examine and decide cases according to the pleading of the parties reflecting the real controversy and not in stereotype manner. He said that judges should keep in mind the Supreme Court’s verdicts including 2015 SMCR 1550 and 2020 SMCR 300 regarding recording of evidence and number of opportunities of production of evidence. The directive further said that the criminal courts should strictly frame the charges in strict compliance with the Criminal Code and the applications of 249A and 265K in criminal cases should be disposed of in a timely manner as per the directions issued by the Lahore High Court. Criminal courts record evidence during the proceedings under Section 512 of the Criminal Code.
Furthermore, in criminal cases, all available evidence against the accused should be placed before him while recording the statement under section 342 of the CrPC.
The District and Sessions Judges across the province have been directed to inspect the records of all the courts of their respective districts and send a certificate in this regard to the Directorate of District Judiciary within 15 days. It is pertinent to mention that during inspection through an online system installed in the Directorate of District Judiciary as many as 31 judicial officers were found absent or late from their court rooms. Taking serious notice of the matter, the Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan sought explanations from all the judicial officers. Out of which 4 additional district and sessions judges and 6 civil judges were late from their courtrooms while 9 additional district and sessions judges and 12 civil judges remained absent from their court room the whole day without intimation or prior permission.
