Sajjad Ghani Syed and another vs Ch. Asghar Ali and others
This matter originated from civil petitions challenging judgments passed by the Islamabad High Court regarding a property dispute. Upon the unanimous request of the parties, who expressed no objection to the setting aside of the impugned judgments and the remand of the case, the Supreme Court converted the petitions into appeals and allowed them. The Court set aside the impugned judgments dated 26.04.2019 and 17.09.2019 and remanded the case to the Islamabad High Court for a fresh decision. The Supreme Court directed that the matter be heard by a judge other than the one who originally decided the case, to be nominated by the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court. Furthermore, the Court ordered the District Administration of Islamabad, specifically the Assistant Commissioner, to take possession of the disputed property pending the final outcome of the High Court proceedings. The High Court was directed to decide the matter expeditiously before the commencement of summer vacations, with the parties ordered to appear before the High Court on a fixed date.
- Can the Supreme Court remand a case to the High Court for a fresh decision based on the consent of the parties?
- Does the Supreme Court have the authority to direct the Chief Justice of a High Court to nominate a different judge for a remanded case?
- Can the Supreme Court order the District Administration to take possession of disputed property pending the final outcome of High Court proceedings?
ORDER
Manzoor Ahmad Malik, J.-- Learned counsel for the parties i.e. petitioners in CP Nos, 2022 & 2023 of 2019, CP No. 4027 of 2019 and respondents in all petitions have unanimously stated, under instructions of their clients, that they have no objection if the impugned judgments passed by the learned Islamabad High Court, Islamabad are set aside, the case is remanded to the learned Islamabad High Court for a fresh decision by another learned Judge of the said Court and the possession of the disputed property is handed over to the District Administration of Islamabad till the final outcome of the decision of the learned High Court. They further state that the learned High Court be directed to decide the case within the shortest possible time and an actua l date may also be fixed by this Court for appearance of the parties before the learned High Court. In the circumstances, the request is reasonable.
2. In this view of the matter , all these petitions are converted into appeals and the same are hereby allowed. The impugned judgments of the learned High Court dated 26.04.2019 passed in W.P. Nos. 2336 and 2311 of 2018 and dated 17.09.2019 passed in Review Application No. 19 of 2019 are set aside, as a result whereof the matter is remanded to the learned Islamabad High Court, Islamabad for a fresh decision, of course, after hearing the parties.
W.P. Nos. 2336 and 2311 of 2018 and CM. Nos. 5275 of 2018 and 5303 of 2018 shall be deemed to be pending before the learned Islamabad High Court, Islamabad, which shall be decided by a learned Judge, to be nominated by the Hon'ble Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court, Islamabad, other than the learned Judge who had passed the judgments challenged before us, before the commencement of Summer Vacations. The parties are directed to appear before the learned Islamabad High Court, Islamabad on 16 of March, 2020 . The concerned Assistant Commissioner , Islamabad shall immediately take over the possession of the disputed property , which shall be subject to the outcome of the judgment of the learned Islamabad High Court.th