Justice Jillani took oath as Chief Justice of Pakistan, following the retirement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the presidency where President Mamnoon Hussain administered oath.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, members of the Federal Cabinet, Parliamentarians, members of the diplomatic community and senior officers attended the oath-taking ceremony, said a press release.
The new Chief Justice called on President Mamnoon Hussain who congratulated him and wished him well in the discharge of his new responsibilities.
After hearing the case, Chief Justice chaired a full court meeting to formulate a strategy to ensure inexpensive and expeditious dispensation of justice and the means to provide remedy to litigants through addressing pendency which was recorded at 20,456 on December 11, 2013.
Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rahman and Justice Mushir Alam attended the meeting.
The meeting decided to prepare on an urgent basis subject-wise categorisation of cases including sub-categories, lists of cases to be fixed before two-member benches and three-member benches. It was also decided during the meeting that proposed cause-lists would be issued a month in advance.
In order to address the backlog issue, it was decided that cases of one advocate would not be fixed simultaneously at different stations/Branch Registries of the apex court and unnecessary adjournments would be discouraged. In view of heavy pendency, the judges on the suggestion of Chief Justice Jillani volunteered to forego the coming winter vacation so that benches could be constituted at the principal seat as well as branch registries for the hearing of cases.
During the meeting, the Chief Justice said he would try his level best to strengthen the institution and would take steps to bring improvements not only at the superior court level but also District judiciary level. According to him, district judiciary is the initial forum for providing access to justice to the people knocking the doors of the courts and that is the place where the image of judiciary is either made or marred.
"The district judiciary is under great pressure and needs to be supported and strengthened in terms of increase of strength of Judges and Court staff and all requisite infrastructure," the Chief Justice stated and added that he would take up the matter with relevant quarters after the formulation of appropriate measures in the meeting of National Judicial Policy Making Committee.