SC refers military courts case to committee for bench constitution

The Supreme Court referred on Wednesday the matter of bench constitution in a case pertaining to trials of civilians in military courts to the three-member apex court committee. The three-member committee includes the chief justice and the two senior-most judges of the apex court.  The committee was formed as a result of an amendment to the Practice and Procedure Bills 2023. Earlier, the chief justice was the sole decision-making entity. A six-judge larger bench led by Justice Aminuddin Khan also sought records of military court decisions regarding the conviction of 20 individuals. Justice Shahid Waheed had asked the Attorney General for Pakistan, Mansoor Awan, to provide details of the military courts' decisions to examine whether Article 10-A was being complied with or not. Khawaja Ahmad Hossain, counsel for ex-CJP Jawwad S Khawaja, requested the bench to refer the matter to the committee for the reconstitution of the bench. Read Trying civilians in military courts ‘against int'l law’ The apex court last year conditionally suspended its prior decision to invalidate military trials for 103 civilians till a final judgment on the matter. The majority 5-1 verdict, reached by a six-member bench, stems from a series of intra-court appeals (ICAs), contesting the previous unanimous ruling nullifying the military trials, filed by the caretaker federal government and the provincial governments of Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. However, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court earlier unanimously declared the trial of civilians in military courts as null and void and ordered that the 103 accused in cases relating to the violence on May 9 and 10, 2023 be tried under the ordinary criminal laws. The court through the 4-1 majority also declared certain clauses of the Army Act as ultra vires the Constitution and of no legal effect. “Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing the trials of civilians and accused persons, being around 103 persons who were identified in the list provided to the Court by the learned Attorney General for Pakistan by way of CMA No.5327 of 2023 in Constitution Petition No.24 of 2023 and all other persons who are now or may at any time be similarly placed in relation to the events arising from and out of 9th and 10th May, 2023 shall be tried by Criminal Courts of competent jurisdiction established under the ordinary and / or special law of the land in relation to such offences of which they may stand accused,” the court order said. The court further declared that any “action or proceedings under the Army Act in respect of the aforesaid persons or any other persons so similarly placed (including but not limited Constitution Petition Nos.24, 25, 26, 27 & 28 and 30 & 35 of 2023 6 to trial by Court Martial) are and would be of no legal effect.”

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