ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court has purchased 308 new cars for its judicial officers out of which 122 are being distributed among civil judges across Punjab.

According to a document available with Dawn, the director general of LHC Directorate of District Judiciary has written a letter to all district and sessions judges and senior civil judges of Rawalpindi, Baha­walpur, Gujrat, Lahore, Mandi Bahauddin, Muzaf­far­­garh, Okara, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Rawal­pindi, Sargodha and Toba Tek Singh, informing them that these brand new vehicles would replace the official cars of civil judges allotted to them in 2016.

The LHC is the oldest high court of the country and currently about two million cases are pending with the court and its subordinate provincial judiciary.

As per last month’s statistics of the LHC, 53,955 cases were decided at its principal seat of Lahore from January to July this year, 24,174 at Multan, 11,221 at Bahawalpur and 6,412 at Rawalpindi bench.

Civil judges asked to surrender their previously allotted vehicles

The document revealed that the district judiciary of Punjab had decided over 1.6 million cases during the same period. However, 1.16m new cases were instituted in civil and sessions courts during the same period. As per the document, the LHC chief justice has allowed “the allotment of 122 (ready for delivery) out of 308 newly purchased Suzuki Cultus VXL vehicles to the civil judges (having official vehicles Suzuki Cultus Model 2016) on a seniority basis”.

All civil judges have been asked to surrender their previously allotted vehicles to the district and sessions judges/senior civil judges of their respective districts.

The document said the district and sessions judges and senior civil judges would make sure that the vehicles being surrendered are “up to the mark in all respect” and not damaged.

The civil judges have been advised to “keep the original keys, registration cards in safe custody and display computerised number plates on the official vehicles”. They have been warned of “strict disciplinary action” in case of failure to protect these articles.

Sources in the judicial bureaucracy told Dawn that the LHC always took lead to facilitate its staff. They said that while additional registrars in other provinces as well as in the federal capital were given BS-20, the additional registrar of LHC holds BS-21, and under a time-scale formula of the LHC Rules, he could attain BS-22 after serving five years in BS-21.

Likewise, the superior judicial allowance of the LHC was also attractive compared to other high courts, the sources said.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2022