ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court reserved judgment in the contempt of Court case against former state minister for interior Talal Chaudhry after his counsel concluded his arguments Wednesday.A three-member bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed reserved the judgment with the ruling that the date for pronouncement of the verdict will be given later.However, the Court directed that the alleged contemnor Talal Chaudhry must ensure his presence on the day of the announcement of the verdict.Commencing his arguments, defence counsel Kamran Murtaza contended that the chief justice was not legally authorised to take suo motu case of what it called contemptuous speeches made by Talal Chaudhry former minister of state for interior affairs.He argued that instead of exercising judicial powers, the chief justice exercised administrative power while acting upon the advice of the Registrar of the apex Court and took suo motu.“The chief justice should have sent the matter to a bench of the apex Court for examining the matter and later on the said bench could have better decide further action in this regard,” Kamran Murtaza submitted.The learned counsel for defence argued that the instant contempt proceeding against his client Talal Chaudhry was not properly initiated in view of Article 204 of the Constitution. Elaborating his point, Kamran Murtaza contended that it is the prerogative of the Court to decide that whether any action in term of Article 204 of the Constitution read with the relevant provision of contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 is to be initiated or otherwise.“As per records, the Court has not decided that any suo motu action against the alleged contemnor as such there is jurisdictional defect in the proceedings,” the defence counsel contended, adding that even this view was taken by one of the judges of the apex Court Justice Qazi Faiz Isa while sitting in a bench at Peshawar Registry and he had also given a separate note in this regard. The counsel pleaded the Court to show restrain in this matter as he said his client has not made any contempt.He cited various judgments where the apex Court had shown restrain and recalled that the apex Court in cases of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri had shown restrain while withdrawing show cause notices against them.He submitted that Imran Khan had used derogatory words for the Court while Dr Tahirul Qadri also gave remarks about a judge after concluding his case but the Court showed restrain in their cases.“Even Imran Khan did not tender unconditional apology before the Court and neither the Court sought apology from him but discharged show cause notice against him,” he contended, adding that contempt notice was also withdrawn against the PML-N leader Saad Rafique after showing restrain in the case against him. Like Saad Rafique and Imran Khan, my client too was a MNA hence he should also be given the favour as given to them.
07-12-2018, 02:15 PM
Supreme Court reserves verdict in Talal Chaudhry contempt case
العرض الشجري