The Supreme Court on Thursday turned down the court's registrar's objection against former Islamabad High Court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui's petition against his removal from his post, and admitted the case for hearing.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed held an in-chamber hearing of Siddiqui's appeal against the registrar's move.
Last year, the Supreme Court's registrar had returned a petition filed by Siddiqui in the top court against his removal on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), saying that it was "not entertainable" due to a trio of objections.
One of the objections raised by the SC registrar was "that the petitioner is invoking extraordinary jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution for the redressal of an individual grievance, which is not permissible in terms of judgment reported as 1998 SCMR 793 titled as Zulfiqar Mehdi Vs PIA etc".
The former high court judge had challenged the registrar's move and said that it was "a case of common welfare" and that "the Supreme Court has had ruled in these nature of cases under Section 3 of the Article 184". He pointed out that "the Iftikhar Chaudhry case precedent is also present in this regard".
The former judge had demanded that "the SC registrar's objections be set aside and his case be heard in open court".
Siddiqui had been removed from his position as high court judge for "displaying a conduct unbecoming of a judge by delivering a speech on July 21, 2018 at the District Bar Association Rawalpindi, [and] thus [found] guilty of misconduct".
