Islamabad:

Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani has observed that the court’s acting Supreme Court, Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz, has no authority to withdraw a case from a bench through an administrative order.

“It is not possible to transfer a case from a single-member bench to a division bench. It is my principled position that no case can be transferred in this way,” Justice Kayani said on Thursday while hearing a case.

A fresh controversy emerged over the bench constitution at IHC with a Justice Kayani-led larger bench that previously heard quota-related cases, replaced by a new panel.

The former bench, also including Justice Babar Sattar and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, had held a hearing of the case on March 6 and was scheduled to resume the hearing on Thursday, April 10.

However, according to the IHC site, the case was listed for consultation for a bench with three members led by functioning Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar and consists of Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro and Justice Inaam Amin Minhas.

The new bench had to take up the case on Thursday.

However, the hearing was canceled due to non-accessibility by the judges.

During the consultation of another case, Justice Kayani expressed her reservation on the go. “Go and try to communicate this [to acting CJ]”The judge asked a lawyer smiling.

Previously, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan also heard a disdain for the trial against the superintendent in Adiala prison for refusing meetings

with PTI Foundation Chairman Imran Khan.

During the consultation, Superintendent Ghafoor Anjum had requested that cases related to Imran Khan’s meetings and contempt fees were the club together.

Working CJ Dogar then constituted a three-member larger bench and disposed of the cases with instructions.

However, Justice Ejaz Ishaq Khan launched a separate Suo Motu -Duty Procedure that remains in progress.