Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has said that the volume of corruption and terrorism has been increased in the country as the judiciary cannot work properly.
“If everything goes on in accordance with the Constitution and existing law; if the judiciary can work independently, the level of corruption and terrorism will be decreased. A vested quarter is misguiding the head of the government giving wrong message with an intention to create a gap between the legislative and executive branches,” he said.
The CJ came up with the above remarks while addressing at an inaugural ceremony of ‘Online Application Registration System’ of Judicial Service Commission at Judicial Administration Training Centre in the city on Saturday.
“Some little problems existing in the judiciary are not properly placed before the head of the government, rather these are placed with wrong interpretation, along with a campaign that the judiciary is an opponent to the administration,” the CJ said.
Pointing that about 300 posts of judges have fallen vacant, he said: “We send letters to the government about the vacancy of judges in due time, but do not get administrative cooperation. It’s a lower tier of administration, which sends misinterpretation to the government high-up.”
“I hope that those who are in the administration and deal this issue will not give wrong reports to the head of the government. I’m urging them to give correct information in a bid to ensure a sound and good relation between the judiciary and executive branches,” he said.
Now the administration is getting incorrect message. It is said that judiciary is the rival of administration. But it is a wrong conception. In each government’s tenure, there are excessive responses over some maters. Here, the judiciary plays the role to control such activities. If not so, the judiciary still has to remain under the administration; in which way the kings and monarchs had conducted trials. But the judiciary has been separated as it could give judgment without any pressure and partisan interest.”
He also cautioned: “Don’t think that only judiciary is being affected for giving such wrong reports, instead the government itself getting hampered. The main object of government is to maintain law and order perfectly. And to maintain law and order, it needs proper trial of criminals. If the trial is not held timely, the criminals will come out of jail getting bail and again will get involved in crimes.”
Blaming a few persons for harming judiciary, the CJ said: “History says some persons of our own judiciary are causing harm to the judiciary since Pakistan tenure. Only a few are responsible for such situation.”
Referring to question leakage in the public examinations, he claimed the Judicial Service Commission is only an institute where no question papers have been leaked.
It is to be noted that earlier on March 15, the CJ had expressed unhappiness over the Attorney General Mahabubey Alam during the proceeding of historic Masdar Hossain case, known as the case of separation of the judiciary from the executive, after it came up in the daily cause list of the Supreme Court for 65 times.
“The institution [judiciary] has to be protected. But the judiciary has been held hostage by the non-issuance of a gazette notification…I wonder how long would this go on! Is there any government in the country? How much time do you [AG] need to issue the gazette notification? There is an issue of fair play by the government. Everything is going on as usual. But the judiciary has been held hostage,” he further said raising the questions.
However, the apex court allowed two more weeks for the government to issue the gazette notification when AG sought four more weeks by filing a petition.
The verdict given by the Appellate Division in the historic State vs. Masdar Hossain case on December 2, 1999 had mandated the drafting of a 12-point set of guidelines on the separation of the judiciary from the executive.
The judiciary was officially separated in November 2007. But the disciplinary rules for lower court judges are not finalized till the date. For several years, the SC has issued multiple rulings, asking the government to issue a gazette notification on the finalised rules.
The government had drafted the rules and sent those to the apex court for its opinion on May 7, 2015. On August 28 , 2017, the Appellate Division declared the government’s draft rules to be in contradiction with the verdict in the Masdar Hossain case because the draft was similar to the Government Servants [Discipline and Appeal] Rules, 1985.
The SC, after revising the rules drafted, sent those to the Law Ministry and asked the government to issue the gazette notification by November 6. On the other hand, the government repeatedly sought time without issuing the gazette notification.
On December 8, the Appellate Division summoned two secretaries of the Law Ministry the next day for failing to comply with its November 14 order. But the two secretaries appeared before the court on December 12 with a gazette notification issued by the President that stated that there was no need to notify the rules in the official gazette.
Against this backdrop, the apex court asked the government to issue the gazette notification by January 15 and said the executive had misled the President on the matter.
