MUZAFFARABAD: The Chief Justice of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Raja Saeed Akram Khan on Monday advised the government and other institutions concerned not to dilly-dally on implementation of the decisions of the council of judges and the law commission, warning that judiciary would not tolerate trespassing against its authority.

“The constitutional jurisdiction of the judiciary, executive and legislature is clearly defined and they will have to operate within their bounds. Encroachment by any institution [into the domain of others] will not be allowed,” he declared while speaking as chief guest at the 11th Judicial Conference titled “Responsibility of Judiciary, Government, Lawyers and Litigants in dispensation of justice.”

The conference was organised and hosted by the AJK High Court, whose chief justice Sadaqat Hussain Raja and judge Syed Shahid Bahar were also among the key speakers. Prominent among others who spoke on the occasion were law minister Mian Abdul Waheed, Advocate General Khawaja Maqbool Var, Vice Chairman AJK Bar Council Raja Nadeem Khan, law secretary Dr Idrees Abbasi, district judge Raja Faisal Majeed, AJK supreme court bar association president Raja Sajjad Ahmed and high court bar association president Hamid Raza.

Earlier, additional registrar Muhammad Riaz Shafi shared the details of the pending and disposed of cases in the high and subordinate courts during last year with the help of multimedia.

CJ Akram noted that protection of the basic rights of people and provision of remedy to them against injustices was the judiciary’s constitutional obligation and the executive was bound to implement directions in this regard.

He regretted that undue delays, unethical recommendations, nepotism, favouritism and corruption during provision of service to the masses was a common occurrence in government departments and hence talk of the town.

“Unfortunately, there is no effective check and balance system to rein in such employees. The performance of the institutions meant for accountability has been disappointing,” he said, asking the government and law-making bodies to either do fresh legislation or amend the existing laws to plug loopholes.

The CJ also took exception to frequent strike calls by lawyers on “trivial issues,” and said the practice also caused delays in disposal of cases and needed to be reviewed.

Earlier, in his address, the High Court CJ said that the pace of work over the last two years would continue and the cases pending from 2019 and 2020 would be fixed in the current year.

Vowing that dereliction of duty and corruption in lower courts would be dealt with iron hands, he declared that the culture of prolonging litigations would also be done away with.

Warning against filing of fake cases, CJ Sadaqat announced that such litigants would be made to pay damages.

“Case management system will soon be implemented following which litigants will not be able to obtain the [hearing] dates of their choice.”

He said since flawed investigations in criminal cases were a hurdle in disposal of cases, strict action would be taken against the culpable investigation officers.

“In future, annual confidential reports of police officers will be compiled on the basis of the standard of their investigations,” he declared.

“We will go to the last extent to ensure speedy and low-cost justice.”

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2024