ISLAMABAD: A Supreme Court bench has reminded its office not to entertain or receive any petition in future filed without satisfying the requirement of any provisions of the Constitution, law or Supreme Court Rules, 1980, as it will simply be a “frivolous”petition.

“The office must be vigilant about this legal position and perform its administrative duty in this regard with due diligence,” observed Senior Puisine Judge Syed Mansoor Ali Shah in a three-page order he authored.

Justice Shah was heading a two-judge bench also comprising Mohammad Ali Mazhar that had taken review petition of Mohammad Ashraf.

Any petition that does not fall within the scope of any provision of the Constitution, the law or the Rules is “frivolous” and should not be received, entertained by the registrar, as per Rule 5 of Order 17 of the Rules.

The controversy at hand revolves around the petition seeking a review of court’s Nov 8, 2023 order after the dismissal of his appeal against the May 27, 2022 order of the registrar.

The misunderstanding of the petitioner, who filed the review petition in person without obtaining any legal advice, was understandable, but it was surprising that the office had entertained the review petition despite there being no provision for such a review petition in either the constitution or the rules, the order regretted.

The court then rejected the review petition for being not entertainable or maintainable.

On May 27, the registrar office had returned the appeal for being not entertainable for the restoration of his original appeal in which the Federal Service Tribunal (FST) on May 3, 2019, had dismissed hi service appeal regarding his annual increments, pensionary benefits, etc for the period he remained dismissed from service from Wapda.

When asked to specify under which provision of the constitution or the SC Rules the review petition was filed, the petitioner could not cite any provision, the judgment said, adding that it hardly needed clarification that Article 188 (review petition) and Order 26 of the Rules pertain to the review of judicial orders, not administrative orders.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2024