Supreme Court strikes down contempt law: Declares it unconstitutional
Saturday, August 4th, 2012 1:43:00 by Fayyaz Yaseen
Islamabad: (Saturday, August 04, 2012) The Supreme Court of Pakistan has stricken down the contempt of court law while declaring it against the fundamental structure of the constitution.
A five member bench of the apex court, headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry along with Justice Shakirullah Jan, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Jawad S Khawaja and Justice Tassaduq Hussain
Jilani, heard 27 identical petitions challenging the Contempt of Court Act, 2012.
The summary of the 21-page order written by the Chief Justice stated,
" After having found various provisions of COCA 2012 as ultra vires the Constitution, we are of the opinion that the remaining provisions of the impugned legislation, if allowed to stay on the statute book, would serve no purpose particularly, when it has
been held that repealing section itself is a nullity, therefore, the principle of severability as applied by this Court in Mehram Ali v. Federation Pakistan (PLD 1998 SC 1445) and Dr. Mobashir Hassan’ case is not attracted. Thus, having been left with no constitutional
option, COCA 2012 is declared unconstitutional, void and non est, as a consequence whereof, following the dictum laid down in Attorney General for Alberta v. Attorney-General for Canada (AIR 1948 PC 194), it is declared that the Contempt of Court Ordinance,
2003 shall be deemed to have revived with effect from 12.07.2012, the day when COCA 2012 was enforced with all consequences".
Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=30311
Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen
on Aug 4 2012. Filed under Pakistan.
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