Why Millions of Cases are Rotting in Our Courts?

How can we ensure that justice is not only done, but seen to be done?

Let\'s talk about the issue when a judge occasionally faces when a litigant alleges bias against him requesting the learned judge to recuse himself from that case. I think Judges should be as self-aware about what their biases are, and proactively taking steps to ensure that biases don\'t affect their decisions. A judge should decline resolutely to act in a case involving his own interest or if a judge\'s conduct or behaviour apprehends a suspicion that the judge is not impartial.

This is a hot topic nowadays because media is talking about a bench headed by Honourable Chief Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and the counsels of Bahria Town says there seems to be apparent bias as Chief Justice Jawwad Khawaja cancelled general adjournments granted to them by ex Chief Justice of Pakistan Nasir-ul-Mulk and ordered to resume the hearing during general adjournment. Is this not violation of Constitution (Article 10-A)? During the hearing Justice Jawwad Khawaja also made a statement \"Instead of recusing myself from the bench, I would resign and go straight to my home.\"

Justice Jawwad also responded by stating \"Important case can\'t be adjourned like ordinary cases\". May I ask about those 1.7 million cases pending in Supreme Court and lower courts of Pakistan holds no importance whatsoever? Can there be more bias than this? Was Arsalan Iftikhar case not important where all evidence against Arsalan was overlooked and he was dropped of all charges just because he was son of The Chief Justice Chaudhry Iftikhar? If the rich won\'t get justice from honorable courts than where will the poor go for justice?

Millions of open cases, which are more than 40 years old, are rotting in the archives of the courts, still pending to be heard and decided. The cases of common people unsurprisingly don\'t get attention of the courts because there is no media there and there is no chance of breaking news. We request Justice Jawad to reconsider his approach in the instant case, in order to ensure that a dangerous precedent is not set for the times to come.

I\'ll say that Recusal by a judge is not a sin and does not in any way harm the independence of the judiciary or hurt the integrity of a judge. In fact, the judges who recuse themselves are duly respected and are considered to be independent and interested in justice and not the case. The Judges are not there for themselves but are there to provide justice to a common man and if there is a reasonable bias established a judge must recuse and the case should be passed on to another judge.