ISLAMABAD:
Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) Acting Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar has taken notice of a letter written by the secretary of an IHC judge with regard to alleged demand of bribes by the court staff — transferred to the IHC from other courts — from litigants.
Justice Dogar on Friday constituted a committee comprising IHC Registrar Yar Muhammad Walana and Additional Registrar Establishment Rai Muhammad Khan to launch an inquiry into the matter and submit a report within three days.
In a letter written to the IHC registrar by Justice Babar Sattar’s secretary on the judge’s instruction, alarm had been raised over the reported demand of “gratuity/ handouts” from litigants by the staff recently transferred from other high courts to the IHC.
The letter had noted that the “pernicious practice” of court staff chasing after counsels and litigating parties, who have been granted relief by the court, to demand gratuity and handouts has begun rearing its ugly head in the IHC recently.
“The staff of the IHC are full-time employees of the court and are paid appropriate compensation for their services and duties as fixed by law. For an employee to seek gratuity from a counsel or a litigating party for having been granted some relief by the court is an act of misconduct.
It said all courts, including the high courts, have been established to discharge services to citizens and as service providers it is for the courts and their staff to discharge such services to the best of their ability.
“To accept any handouts or gratuity paid by a counsel and/or a litigating party qualifies as bribery on part of a court employee, and to demand such gratuity qualifies as seeking rents for dispensation of justice, and can have no place in the culture of the court that exists to provide citizens access to justice. Such demands, therefore, must attract strict disciplinary action,” it said.
