Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, through a circular on Tuesday, took serious notice of illegal gratification taken from litigants by junior court staff, including qasids and naib qasids attached to judges and administrative offices of the court.
The circular issued by Additional Registrar (G&S) Attaur Rehman, on behalf of the LHC registrar and the CJ, said, “It has been observed with deep concern that despite a reasonable increase in pay and allowances of high court employees, some of the qasids, naib qasids and other staff and officials working in offices of the court are still involved in demanding illegal gratification from litigants and lawyers.”
The LHC CJ directed all private secretaries, readers attached with courts and assistant registrars, deputy registrars and additional registrars of the court to keep a vigilant eye on officials attached to them to check such the staff involved in receiving illegal gratification and report any such malpractices to the competent authority for necessary disciplinary action.
“Such misdeeds on their part are not only earning a bad name to the institution but also a serious offence and indiscipline, which calls for penal action against such employees,” the order stated. Taking serious notice of the situation, the competent authority has decided that in future no leniency will be shown to any official found involved in receiving illegal gratification and similar malpractices in any manner, the circular said.
The circular made it clear that if penal action against corrupt officials is not taken, the officer in-charge of such corrupt staff will also be treated as an accomplice with the actual culprit.
