West Pakistan High Court

Last updated

The High Court of West Pakistan was the High Court for the province of West Pakistan during the days of one unit from 1956 to 1971 until the separation of East Pakistan.

Contents

Establishment

On 30 September 1955 the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan passed the Establishment of West Pakistan Act, 1955. By Section 7 of the Establishment of West Pakistan Act, 1955, the Governor-General of Pakistan was invested with the power to establish, by Order, a High Court for the Province of West Pakistan to replace the Lahore High Court.

The High Court of West Pakistan (Establishment) Order XIX of 1955, (which came into force on 14 October 1955) established the legal foundation for the High Court of West Pakistan and provided for various matters in relation to its jurisdiction and powers. The Order inter alia provided that the new High Court of West Pakistan would have such Original, Appellate and other jurisdiction and such powers and authority in respect of the territories included in the Province of West Pakistan as the High Court of Judicature at Lahore had immediately before the commencement of that Order.

Appointment of Judges

By virtue of Article 6 of the High Court of West Pakistan (Establishment) Order, 1955, read with Section 7 of the Establishment of West Pakistan Act, 1955, Judges of the Chief Court of Sind and the Judicial Commissioners' Court at Peshawar became Judges of the High Court of West Pakistan, entitled to terms and conditions of service, not less favourable than those to which they were entitled as Judge of the High Courts from which they were transferred. Persons who were immediately before the date of the establishment of the High Court of West Pakistan serving as temporary or additional Judges became, on the interacting day, temporary or additional Judges, as the case may be of the High Court of West Pakistan.

Functioning

The 1956 Constitution provided for a High Court for each of the two Provinces and declared that the existing High Court for the Provinces of East Bengal and West Pakistan functioning before the Constitution Day would be deemed to be High Courts, under the Constitution, for the Provinces of East Pakistan and West Pakistan respectively. Under the Constitution, both the Provincial High Courts retained the jurisdiction and powers as were exercisable by them immediately before the Constitution Day. Likewise, persons holding office as Chief Justice and Judges of the two Provincial High Courts, continued to retain their offices on the same terms and conditions as to remuneration and other privileges as were applicable to them immediately before the Constitution Day.

As previously provided in the Government of India Act 1935, the new Constitution declared the two Provincial High Courts to be Courts of Record and provided for the appointment of permanent and acting judges by the President of Pakistan (instead of the Governor-General), for their holding of the office during good behaviour and for their retirement at the age of 60. Unfortunately, the new Constitution did not provide for the appointment of temporary additional judges to any of the two High Courts.

The qualification for appointment of persons as Judges of the said High Courts were altered. Pakistani Citizenship was made a pre-requisite. The bifurcation previously created between barristers and pleaders was removed and both were grouped into one compartment for eligibility, namely, advocates or defendants having at least ten years' standing in both or either of High Courts. The qualifying period of five years service previously laid down for persons holding judicial officers in British India not inferior to that of a subordinated Judge, or judge of a Small Cause Court, was raised to ten, but the enumeration describing the two particular types of judicial offices to be held was removed. The appointment of all judges by the President was made conditional on the President first seeking advice from the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the Governor General of Province to which the appointment related and where the appointment was out that of the Province to which the appointment related and where the appointment was not that of the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of the High Court of that Province. The Constitution also gave the President the power to transfer a Judges of a High Court from one High Court to the other High Court after securing the Judges's consent and after consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Chief Justice of the Court of which the proposed transferee was a Judge.

Jurisdiction

The two High Courts were given power, throughout the territories in which they exercised jurisdiction, to issue to any person or authority (including the government directions, orders or writs (including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari) for the enforcement of all or any of the Fundamental Rights contained in Part II of the Constitution and for any other purpose generally.

List Of Chief Justices West Pakistan High Court

List Of Retired Justices West Pakistan High Court

Related Research Articles

Politics of Pakistan Political system of Pakistan

The politics of Pakistan takes place within the framework established by the constitution. The country is a federal parliamentary republic in which provincial governments enjoy a high degree of autonomy and residuary powers. Executive power is vested with the national cabinet which is headed by the prime minister, who works coherently along with the bicameral parliament and the judicature. Stipulations set by the constitution provide a delicate check and balance of sharing powers between executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government.

A prerogative writ is a writ directing the behavior of another arm of government, such as an agency, official, or other court. It was originally available only to the Crown under English law, and reflected the discretionary prerogative and extraordinary power of the monarch. The term may be considered antiquated, and the traditional six comprising writs are often called the extraordinary writs and described as extraordinary remedies.

Supreme Court of Pakistan Federal Court based in Islamabad

The Supreme Court of Pakistan is the apex court in the judicial hierarchy of Pakistan.

The Federal Court of Canada, which succeeded the Exchequer Court of Canada in 1971, was a national court of Canada that had limited jurisdiction to hear certain types of disputes arising under the federal government's legislative jurisdiction. Originally composed of two divisions, the Appellate Division and the Trial Division, in 2003 the Court was split into two separate Courts, the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. The jurisdiction and powers of the two courts remained largely unchanged from the predecessor divisions.

The court system of Canada forms the judicial branch of government, formally known as "The Queen on the Bench", which interprets the law and is made up of many courts differing in levels of legal superiority and separated by jurisdiction. Some of the courts are federal in nature, while others are provincial or territorial.

Supreme Court of the Philippines Highest court in the Philippines

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the Philippines. The Supreme Court was established by the Second Philippine Commission on June 11, 1901 through the enactment of its Act No. 136, an Act which abolished the Real Audiencia de Manila, the predecessor of the Supreme Court.

Lahore High Court

The Lahore High Court is based in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was established as a high court on 21 March 1882. The Lahore High Court has jurisdiction over Punjab. The High Court's principal seat is in Lahore, but there are benches in three other Pakistani cities: Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur. A proposal was sent by lawyers to set up new high court benches in Faisalabad, Sialkot, D.G.Khan and Gujranwala divisions but full court of Lahore High Court turned down this request.

Supreme court Highest court in a jurisdiction

The supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and highcourt of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of a supreme court are not subject to further review by any other court. Supreme courts typically function primarily as appellate courts, hearing appeals from decisions of lower trial courts, or from intermediate-level appellate courts.

Judiciary of Pakistan

The judiciary of Pakistan is a hierarchical system with two classes of courts: the superior judiciary and the subordinate judiciary. The superior judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Federal Shariat Court and five High Courts, with the Supreme Court at the apex. There is a High Court for each of the four provinces as well as a High Court for the Islamabad Capital Territory. The Constitution of Pakistan entrusts the superior judiciary with the obligation to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. Neither the Supreme Court nor a High Court may exercise jurisdiction in relation to Tribal Areas, except otherwise provided for. The disputed regions of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan have separate court systems.

High Court Division

The High Court Division বাংলা:হাইকোর্ট ডিভিশন popularly identified as 'High Court' is one of the two wings of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, the other wing being the Appellate Division. It consists of the Chief Justice of Bangladesh and the Judges of the High Court Division.

New Mexico Supreme Court The highest court in the U.S. state of New Mexico

·

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan was adopted in September 5 of 1976, by the elected Parliament of Pakistan under the democratic government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Judicial officers of the Republic of Singapore wikimedia list article

The judicial officers of the Republic of Singapore work in the Supreme Court and the State Courts to hear and determine disputes between litigants in civil cases and, in criminal matters, to determine the liability of accused persons and their sentences if they are convicted.

High courts of Pakistan

There are five high courts of Pakistan, each of four based in the capital city of one of the four provinces. The government has proposed a fifth high court to cover the Islamabad Capital Territory. This proposal was blocked by the Lahore High Court but that decision was overturned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 24 December 2007. In 18th constitutional amendment, Islamabad High Court is established.

The Constitution of 1962 was the fundamental law of Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 8th June 1962 until martial law was declared in 26 March 1969. It was abrogated in the same year by President Yahya Khan.

Constitution of Barbados

The Constitution of Barbados is the supreme law under which Barbados is governed. The Constitution provides a legal establishment of the structure and various roles of administration of the Queen of Barbados, the Government of Barbados, as well as legal rights and responsibilities of the public and various other government officers. The Constitution which came into force in 1966 was amended in 1974, 1978, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2002, and 2003. The 1966 document succeeds several other documents concerning administration of Barbados. One of them, the Barbados Charter, is discussed in the present Constitution's Preamble. Prior statutes were created for the administration of Barbados as a colony. As a former English and later British colony, the Constitution is similar to those of other Commonwealth realms, yet distinctly different in the spirit of the Statute of Westminster. In recent years there has been some dialogue on whether Barbados should undertake a process of patriating the constitution to cease the foundation being a 1966 Act of the British House of Commons.

The Indian High Courts Act 1861 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to authorize the Crown to create High Courts in the Indian colony. Queen Victoria created the High Courts in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay by Letters Patent in 1862. These High Courts would become the precursors to the High Courts in the modern day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The Act was passed after the First War of Independence of 1857 and consolidated the parallel legal systems of the Crown and the East India Company.

The Judiciary of Sri Lanka are the civil and criminal courts responsible for the administration of justice in Sri Lanka. The Constitution of Sri Lanka defines courts as independent institutions within the traditional framework of checks and balances. They apply Sri Lankan Law which is an amalgam of English common law, Roman-Dutch civil law and Customary Law; and are established under the Judicature Act No 02 of 1978 of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.

National Judicial Appointments Commission

National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was a proposed body which would have been responsible for the appointment and transfer of judges to the higher judiciary in India. The Commission was established by amending the Constitution of India through the ninety-ninth constitution amendment with the Constitution Act, 2014 or 99th Constitutional Amendment Act-2014 passed by the Lok Sabha on 13 August 2014 and by the Rajya Sabha on 14 August 2014. The NJAC would have replaced the collegium system for the appointment of judges as invoked by the Supreme court via judicial fiat by a new system. Along with the Constitution Amendment Act, the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, was also passed by the Parliament of India to regulate the functions of the National Judicial Appointments Commission. The NJAC Bill and the Constitutional Amendment Bill, was ratified by 16 of the state legislatures in India, and subsequently assented by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 31 December 2014. The NJAC Act and the Constitutional Amendment Act came into force from 13 April 2015.

Section 92(14) of the Constitution Act, 1867, also known as the administration of justice power, grants the provincial legislatures of Canada the authority to legislate on:

14. The Administration of Justice in the Province, including the Constitution, Maintenance, and Organization of Provincial Courts, both of Civil and of Criminal Jurisdiction, and including Procedure in Civil Matters in those Courts.