Islamabad:
The Legal Commission’s Under Committee has proposed that reserved judgments be advertised within 90 days, as part of new rules being discussed to evaluate the performance of the Supreme Court’s judges.
The subcommittee meeting, led by justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, reviewed procedures and rules aimed at assessing the effectiveness and behavior of the Supreme Court judges, according to sources.
One of the most important proposals discussed was to associate the judges’ performance with timely disposal of cases, including a requirement to decide on the causal list daily. They further stated that all members of the subcommittee were instructed to submit their recommendations in writing for further consideration.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi had formed two committees, led by Justice Mandokhail, to draw up draft rules for the annual judicial performance evaluation of the Supreme Court’s judges and criteria for the selection of judges for the constitutional benches.
The 26th Constitutional amendment ordered the legal commission to conduct annual performance evaluations of the Supreme Court’s judges. If a judge turns out to be ineffective, the Commission may provide a period for improvement.
If the judge’s performance remains unsatisfactory after this period, the Commission will send its report to the Supreme Court’s Council. Article 175a (20) also states that the Commission can create separate rules to establish effective standards for the performance evaluation of the Supreme Court judges.
