LAHORE: The Punjab Subordinate Judiciary Service Tribunal has allowed pension and other benefits to a civil judge convicted of contempt of court in a petition he filed against then chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) during 1993.

Dr Syed Ali Sana Bokhari had joined the district judiciary in 1978 and posted in the LHC during 1991 as in-charge of a newlyestablished computer cell.

He claimed that then chief justice Mian Mehboob Ahmad nurtured a grudge against him after he refused to follow an `illegal` direction for the procurement of computers and other machinery.

Bokhari was issued a charge-sheet in 1991 and he filed a contempt of court petition in the LHC against the chief justice.

A single bench dismissed his petition in a judgement which was restrained from publishing in press and any law journal. The bench also initiated suo motu proceedings against Bokhari and convicted him in 1993 under contempt of court charges, awarding him six months simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs5,000.

In 2000, a LHC division bench dismissed his appeal against the conviction with anobservation `...he (the petitioner) incurred the wrath of the institution.

However, the Supreme Court partially allowed his appeal, reducing the sentence from six to one month in 2001.

Following departmental proceedings, Bokhari was issued a show cause notice for termination from service on the charge of `moral turpitude` and finally dismissed from service by the administration committee of the LHC on Sept 28, 2001.

Consequently, he filed a service appeal before the Punjab Subordinate Judiciary Service Tribunal, which took 13 years to set aside his termination on June 20, 2014.

Bokhari superannuated during the pendency of his service appeal in 2004.

Both Bokhari and the LHC administration challenged the tribunal`s decision before the Supreme Court that disposed of the same in 2020 with a direction to the competent authority (LHC) to decide the matter within three months.

Later, the high court dropped the proceedings against the civil judge.

A notification issued on May 5, 2021, said, `The chief justice and judges are pleased to abate the disciplinary proceedings against Dr Syed Ali Sana Bokhari, ex-civil judge having already crossed the age of superannuation.

Bokhari approached the LHC registrar forthe release of his pension and other back benefits, which was dismissed through a notification on Jan 22, 2022.

Bokhari challenged the registrar`s notification before the tribunal through Advocate Taffazul Haider Rizvi.

The counsel argued that disciplinary proceedings were abated by the competent authority due to superannuation of the appellant and he stood retired after attaining the age of superannuation.

He argued that appellant was required to be treated like all other superannuated civil servants, as such it was his fundamental right that his pension and all back benefits including promotions, earned during service, were awarded to him.

Allowing the appeal of Bokhari, Tribunal Chairman Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi observed that the appellant served the judiciary for 23 years.

He said, so in all fairness, when the pending disciplinary proceedings were abated and dismissal order was no more in the field, there was no justification in halting the retirement notification in favour of the appellant and withholding the payable pensionary benefits to him.

Justice Rasaal Hasan Syed and Justice Abid Hussain Chattha were the other members of the subordinate judiciary service tribunal.