Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had earlier expressed his strong disagreement with the reconstitution of a Supreme Court Peshawar Registry bench by CJP Nisar.
Islamabad (Pakistan Point News – 17th January, 2019) The full-court reference to honour outgoing Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Misar is being held in the Supreme Court today.
The programme will have speeches of Attorney General of Pakistan Anwar Mansoor, Vice Chairman of Pakistan Bar Council, President of Supreme Court Bar Association, CJP-designate Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, and Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar.
Judges of the superior courts, senior lawyers, bar members and the court' staff will participate in the event.
However, Supreme Court judge Syed Mansoor Ali Shah is not attending the full court reference.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had earlier expressed his strong disagreement with the reconstitution of a Supreme Court Peshawar Registry bench by CJP Nisar.
Justice Shah said the CJP's decision to reconstitute the bench was unwarranted and unprecedented and undermined the integrity of the system.
A three-judge bench of Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah was constituted to hear a human rights case regarding disposal of infectious wastes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The CJP abruptly reconstituted the bench by ousting Justice Isa. The reconstituted bench comprised the CJP himself and Justice Shah.
In the order passed on Saturday, Justice Shah said: "I must admit that my sitting on the reconstituted two-member bench was a mistake and having realized that after examining the legal position, I did not sign the orders passed by the reconstituted two-member bench and as a junior member of the Bench, awaited for the Honourable Chief Justice to pass an appropriate order in response to the Order of my learned brother Qazi Faez Isa, J."
He added that in the absence of a recusal by a member of the bench, any amount of disagreement amongst the members of the bench, on an issue before them, cannot form a valid ground for reconstitution of the bench.
Justice Shah stated, "Any reconstitution of the bench on this ground would impinge on the constitutional value of independence of judiciary. The construct of judicial system is pillared on the assumption that every judge besides being fair and impartial is fiercely independent and is free to uphold his judicial view.
"Any effort to muffle disagreement or to silence dissent or to dampen an alternative viewpoint of a member on the bench, would shake the foundations of a free and impartial justice system, thereby eroding the public confidence on which the entire edifice of judicature stands.
He further remarked, "The judge knows the law and the power it grants to the judge, but he must also learn the limits imposed on him as a judge. Second, a judge must recognize his mistakes. Like all mortals, judges err. A judge must admit this."
