SC (Practice and Procedure) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024: SC urged to declare law ultra vires of constitution

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has been urged to declare SC (Practice and Procedure) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024 as a whole, and specifically sections 2, 3, 4(a) and 5 of the same as ultra vires of the Constitution, void ab initio, and non-est, for being violative of various provisions of the constitution.

Declare that all actions taken pursuant to the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024, including the purported reconstitution of the Committee, all decisions taken by the said committee void. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Gohar Ali Khan on Thursday filed an appeal under Section 5 of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure Act, 2023 against the order dated 12-12-24 of the Constitutional Bench in Const Petition 33 of 2024.

President of Pakistan on 26 September 2024 enacted Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024.

After the enactment of the Ordinance the then Chief Justice of Pakistan re-constituted Committee, and replaced Justice Munib Akhtar with Justice Aminuddin.

The Committee formed a larger bench comprising ex-CJP Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel for hearing of review petitions against the SC’s judgment on Article 63A of the constitution on 30th September 2024.

When Justice Munib refused to sit in the bench, the re-constituted committee included Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan in the larger bench, which on 3rd October 2024 passed short order and detailed judgment on 10th October 2024.

The federal government on 20th September enacted the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Amendment Ordinance, 2024, introducing a few changes in the Act 2023, particularly, in Section 2(1) under that a three-member judges’ committee of the apex court decides on the formation of the SC benches and cases related to human rights.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025