Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) President Asghar Ali Gill requested Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Wednesday to take urgent steps for capacity building of judges or scrutiny of incompetent judges.
In a letter addressed to the LHC CJ, Asghar said that some LHC judges did not know the basics of judicial work, lack aptitude, abilities, exposure, experience and judicial confidence required to take “decisions” in cases while holding courts in ordinary cases such as bail matters or stay orders cases and such judges were becoming cause of growing rumours and dissatisfaction among the litigant and lawyer communities regarding the fate of dispensation of justice. The letter said, “It has been observed that in LHC, the induction of judges some how has not been able to achieve the objectives set out in the judicial policy announced by the chief justice of Pakistan and that as the president of LHCBA, he has received complaints in respect of non-maintenance of the decorum of courts”. The letter said, “It is observed that on account of lack of experience and exposure of the process of dispending justice, disposal of cases has not been satisfactory. The cases are adjourned on account of lack of confidence and ability for decision making and that it is resulting in frustration and confusion and impassion in the litigant public and lawyers community”. The letter noted, “This has also been reported to me that some of the judges lack awareness of high standards of their judicial offices and their conduct has been found short of the dignity attached to the offices which needs to be arrested before it could damage the prestige of the institution and cause lack of confidence in the judicial institution”. The letter regretted, “It has been observed that and reported that some of the judges have extremely divergent approaches in decision making on established principles of the criminal justice system, which is not desirable and not in the interest of the institution. Very ordinary matters are not decided for number of and the pubic has to wait for weeks even to get the copies of the bail orders, stay orders and other orders/judgments which are orally announced in the courts”.
