Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed pleas filed against the transfer of judges from three high courts to the Islamabad High Court and termed them as being constitutional while ruling that Justice Sarfraz Dogar can continue to work as IHC’s acting chief justice.
The verdict was announced by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, who was heading the five-member constitutional bench hearing petitions filed by five IHC judges, the Karachi Bar Association (KBA), the IHC Bar Association, and others against the transfer of Justice Sarfraz Dogar from the Lahore High Court, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro from the Sindh High Court, and Justice Muhammad Asif from the Balochistan High Court. The three judges were among those transferred to the IHC.
The bench also comprises Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Shakeel Ahmed. In February, five judges of the IHC had moved the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution against the appointment of Justice Sarfraz Dogar as the acting chief justice of IHC as well as the trans-fer of high court judges. The plea was filed by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Justice Saman Riffat Imtiaz.
The IHC judges had urged the apex court to declare that the president does not have unfettered and unbridled discretion to transfer judges from one high court to another, under Article 200(1) of the Constitution, without a manifest public interest, and in a manner that hampers the principles of inde-pendence of judiciary and separation of powers.
Their petition also prayed the apex court to declare that in line with the settled law pronounced by the highest court in the case of Aslam Awan and Farrukh Irfan, the inter-se seniority of Respondents No 9-11 shall be determined from the date they take oath as justices of the IHC and would consequently be lower in the seniority list to the petitioners.
The top court had taken up the matter on April 17 and conducted 19 hearings since then. In its 3-2 ma-jority verdict today, the apex court disposed of the multiple petitions with Justice Mazhar, Justice Has-san and Justice Panhwar ruling to set aside the pleas.
Justice Afghan and Justice Ahmad, however, allowed the petitions and set aside the notification of judges’ transfer.
