MUZAFFARABAD: The appointment of M. Tabassum Aftab Alvi as judge of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir High Court (AJK HC) was declared null and void by a referee judge of the same court on Friday - two weeks after difference of opinion had emerged in a division bench on the issue.

Mr Alvi was appointed from the bar as HC judge in Feb 2011 and was elevated as HC chief justice (CJ) in April 2017.

In 2015, a Muzaffarabad based lawyer Ahmed Nawaz Tanoli had challenged his appointment on the grounds that it was “devoid of consultation” by the then HC chief justice.

However, the petition was dismissed by a larger bench of the HC, holding that since no one had challenged Mr Alvi’s appointment between Feb 2011 and 2015, it should be assumed that ‘consultation’ was made in his case.

The very judgment was upheld by the AJK Supreme Court (SC) but without dilating upon the issue of ‘consultation’.

Instead, the apex court bench, which comprised Justice Chaudhry Ibrahim Zia (now CJ) and Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan, had held that Mr Tanoli had filed the petition with mala-fide at the behest of the Shariat Court judges whose appointment was nullified by Mr Alvi.

Early this year, Raja Wasim Younas, a Bhimber based lawyer, emerged with an identical petition against the appointment of Mr Alvi, which was dismissed inlimine by a single member HC bench, comprising Justice Raja Shiraz Kiani, “in the light of the 2015 SC verdict,” maintaining that “litigation on the same issue could not be done again and again”.

However, the dismissal order was set aside by the AJK apex court after it was challenged there by Mr Younas.

The apex court bench remanded the case to the HC with a direction to decide it within a period of 45 days.

However, on Sept 16, senior HC judge Azhar Saleem Babar disassociated himself from that bench, citing code of conduct for the judges did not allow him to be a party in a case where his personal interest was involved.

A fresh bench comprising Justice Kiani and Justice Sadaqat Hussain Raja was constituted for this case, which ended up with dissenting views announced on Nov 1.

As Justice Kiani dismissed the petition and Justice Raja accepted it, the matter was referred to Justice Babar as referee judge.

In his judgment on Friday, Justice Babar agreed with the contention of Mr Younas (petitioner) that the appointment of Mr Alvi as HC judge lacked “proper consultation” by the then HC CJ.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2019