Judges are ‘independent and yet dependent’: Justice Mansoor – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: "We are independent, but we also depend on others at the same time," Judge Syed Mansoor Ali Shah observed with a smile on his face as he rose for a day after attending tax-related cases in the Supreme Court on Friday.

The observation came when the judges withdrew for a short break during judicial proceedings, but there was no usher ("Farishtai" in the local language), was present in Room No. 5. The bank of two judges was formed by the judge Mansoor Ali Shah and Judge Yahya Afridi.

The usher helps the judges put on or take off their black dresses and pull their chairs to let the judges sit comfortably before the start of a hearing or get up after the day's procedures and open or close the doors behind the bench to Let the judges come out.

But on Friday, attendees were not inside the room when the case was heard. Subsequently, Judge Shah and Judge Afridi turned to see behind their chairs, but found no assistant in sight.

A court associate ran out to call the assistants, but when one of them entered the courtroom, the judges were already standing and looking at the lawyers, who also waited for the doors to open.

And when the assistant tried to open the door, he discovered that he was not tall enough to allow his hands to reach the bolt. However, another court employee, standing next to the assistant, opened the door.

“We are independent. However, we depend on others at the same time, ”Judge Shah joked as he left the court.

"It is a tradition that indicates the aura and dignity of the judiciary at the highest level," said lawyer Muhammad Akram Sheikh.

This practice is strictly in accordance with the colonial tradition, but it is not practiced in American courts, since Americans tend to avoid pomp and ceremony, he noted.

"Unlike our system, in the U.S. The judges even sit with members of the bar," said Akram Sheikh. “Our courts have taken Britain as their model. There, the first three lines are reserved for the Queen's Council (QC) and no customer can sit on them. These lawyers also have priority during legal proceedings. "

In the United States, they have even brought about a fundamental change in the Supreme Court bank by eliminating the custom of having a raised floor for judges and a lower one for lawyers.

There, he said, the judges and lawyers communicate sitting on the other side of the table.

"I have not found such formalities in Canada or Australia, but that does not mean that the judges have no respect in those countries," said Akram Sheikh.

Another senior lawyer said that the practice of assistants who were pulling chairs for judges to sit or get up was "a reminder of a colonial era now long dead."

Published on Dawn, November 9, 2019