Justice Das146;s appointment challenged

The appointment of a Hindu judge as Pakistan8217;s Acting Chief Justice as well as head of the Supreme Judicial Council has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

The appointment of a Hindu judge as Pakistan8217;s Acting Chief Justice as well as head of the Supreme Judicial Council has been challenged in the Supreme Court. A petition filed by one Shahid Orakzai questioned the 8220;relegation8221; of a Muslim Chief Justice and the appointment of a non-Muslim judge to the post. In his petition, Orakzai asked the court to declare that religious status of a citizen should take precedence over the seniority of service as a judge of the apex court to act as the Acting Chief Justice. The court is yet to admit the petition.

Justice Das was appointed as ACJ as he was the senior-most judge in the apex court. His appointment followed the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikar Muhammad Chaudhry on the grounds of misconduct and misuse of authority by President Pervez Musharraf on March 9. Supreme Court Judge, Justice Javed Iqbal has defended the move to make Justice Das as ACJ, saying there was no bar in the Constitution of a non-Muslim heading the apex court and cited the example of Justice Cornelius, a Christian, holding the post in the 1960s.

Once before, a petition questioned Justice Das8217;s appointment as Judge of Sindh High Court on the grounds that he was not a Muslim but it was dismissed. Another petition filed on Wednesday in the Supreme Court said Justice Das cannot head the five judge Supreme Judicial Council SJC conducting the trial against the suspended Chief Justice. In his petition, Barrister Zafarullah Khan said under the previous judgements of the apex court, ACJ cannot head the SJC, which would be resuming the trial on April 3. 8220;Acting Chief Justices are allowed to function for a short time, and the composition of the SJC becomes imperfect in the absence of the permanent Chief Justice, and the body as such becomes non-functional,8221; he said in his petition.

The petition said the Chief Justice was not on leave and cannot be suspended. It further said that only the SC could determine whether Chaudhry was unable to perform his duties or not. Khan also challenged the SJC8217;s chairmanship by Justice Das in addition to seeking the exclusion of those judges from the SJC against whom references of misconduct were pending. The government, the Law Ministry and the SJC have been made respondents to the petition, The Dawn

reported.