Clashes between senior Supreme Court judges have intensified as Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah has raised objection to inclusion of two judges in a larger bench hearing an additional registrar’s Intra Court Appeal (ICA) against issuance of contempt notice.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on January 21 issued the contempt notice to Additional Registrar (Judicial) Nazar Abbas after a number of cases were withdrawn from the bench and referred to a constitution bench committee for re-listing .

When a Justice Shah led Bench took up the matter, Nazar Abbas filed an ICA against the show cause notice, an appeal which was listed for hearing before a six-member larger bench on Thursday.

An SC committee constituted the bench headed by Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed and Justice Musarrat Hilali with a majority. The bench is scheduled to hear the case on January 27.

Excluding the bench, Justice Shah said the judges who have a conflict of interest cannot sit on the bench. “Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar are members of the committee constituted under clause (4) of Article 191-A of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” Justice Shah said in his written objections to the larger bench.

“The said committee took up the issue of CPLA No.836-K/2020 and fixed it on 27.1.2025 before the constitutional bench and therefore they cannot be members of the bench as decisions of both committees are in doubt in the contempt proceedings ,” he said.

Justice Shah said after the meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan on Friday, Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi called an informal meeting of the three-member committee in his chambers.

CJP Afridi, Justice Shah and Justice Aminuddin Khan attended the meeting.

“It was agreed that a larger bench be constituted to hear the intra-court appeal in the case. I recommended the constitution of a larger bench consisting of five judges in order of seniority, excluding those who cannot hear the said ICA due to conflict of interest.

“However, the CJP expressed that he would like a four-member bench in the case and the meeting ended there. Later at night [of January 23]I received a WhatsApp message at 21.33 from my secretary seeking approval regarding a proposed bench of six members for approval as a member of the committee.

“I informed my secretary that I will attend this file in the morning. Later on my secretary at 22:28 shared on WhatsApp the court list issued by the registrar after the approval of the two members of the committee constituted according to section 2, paragraph 1 ) of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023

“On receipt of the court list, I communicated my objection through WhatsApp for onward transmission to concerned officials. I record the said objection here for record along with the background of the said larger bench.

“My objection to this hastily assembled larger bench is that the judges who have conflict of interest in the case cannot sit on the bench,” he added.

Justice Shah said that as he was not given a chance to record his opinion on the file as the actual file was never sent to his office and the majority itself decided the matter and issued the roster.

“Therefore, I desire that this note be placed on the record of the decision of the committee dated 23.1.2025, constituting the larger bench,” he concludes.