Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday prevented the Deputy Registrar (judicial) from transferring cases from a single bench to a division bench without a clear legal basis.

In a 12-page judgment, Justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Sardar Ejaz Ishaq also instructed the Justice Secretary to follow existing court lines and stop assigning cases-all-tuned before a division bench on the instructions of the acting chief right-to-other benches.

The court declared that until the full court gives further opinion on the case, Deputy Generalism must operate strictly in accordance with the current legal guidelines and comply with Supreme Court Rules and Orders.

The judgment clarified that although Deputy Generists have the authority to resolve and mark cases for benches, the role does not extend to redistribute them or pull them from one bench to another without legal justification.

“Only cases involving legal interpretation or those of a similar nature providing justification can justify such a distribution,” the decision said.

The court further noted that the authority to approve the legal list lies only with Chief Justice, in accordance with Supreme Court rules and orders.

In his decision, the Court quoted a previous case in which it had already been found that the president judge decides whether to hear a case, in the absence of a withdrawal or bias.

The order added that the Justice Secretary’s office could not help the functioning Supreme Court correctly in this case on the administrative side.