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Formal Structure

The British established the modern formal judiciary structure in India. Bengal was the first province where the modern judicial system was introduced. It gradually spread to the rest of India with the strengthening of colonial control. The colonial administration sought to document the prevalent systems of dispensation of justice and case law in order to integrate them with British law. In the personal sphere, religious laws of various communities were used to make decisions. The gradual process of documentation of legal practices and development of codes led to the writing up of civil and criminal procedure codes. Pakistan’s formal judiciary structure. “The functions of the courts are limited to interpretation of law. Judicial power is a system of sovereign powers vested in the judiciary. The courts derive their authority from the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) 1960 and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrCP) 1908. The latter deals with practice and procedures and supplements the former.”There are two levels of judiciary in Pakistan: the superior judiciary and the “subordinate”, or “lower”, judiciary. The superior judiciary represents the appellate courts and consists of High Courts at each provincial headquarter and a Supreme Court at the federal capital.The lower judiciary is situated at the district level. There are essentially two levels of courts in the district judiciary with an intricate hierarchy within these levels:

1. Civil Courts

2. District and Sessions Courts.

Civil Courts are the lowest tier in the hierarchy. Written the Civil Courts (CC) category, there are three levels:

CC Class III (the junior-most with a limited jurisdiction);
CC Class II (senior than Class III, but also with a limited jurisdiction); and
CC Class I (senior-most in the CC category with unlimited jurisdiction).

There are similar hierarchies at the District level, with a District and Sessions Judge I the district, and then the Additional District and Sessions Judge(s). There is some inter-provincial variation among the four provinces of Pakistan regarding the number of Additional Sessions Judges.The higher judiciary, i.e. the Supreme Court and the High Courts, are constituted on the basis of Article 175 of the Constitution. The Federal Shariat Court, the Service/Administrative Tribunals, the Martial Law Courts, the Special Anti-Terrorist Courts and the Tax Tribunals have been part of a parallel judiciary set up at both the higher and the subordinate level on the basis of their relevant jurisdiction. Their objective is either to expedite the judicial process, to cut back on delay in dealing with important cases or to provide ideological safeguards (as in the case of the Federal Shariat Court). However, this parallel legal system has not been effective in cutting down delays in the dispensation of justice.The separation of the executive from the judiciary was recommended by the Law Reform Commission report published in 1970. It was finally implemented in 1997. Before the separation of the executive from the judiciary, the executive arm of district administration, i.e. bureaucrats under the district commissioner used to perform magisterial functions. It was a continuation of the colonial district administration policy. Under the old system, civil judges and magistrates used to enjoy separate jurisdictions. Since the separation of the executive from the judiciary, judges admit civil as well as criminal and family cases. A Class I Judge acts as a Civil Judge Class I in a property case, a Judicial Magistrate Class I to hear the trial of a criminal case, and a Family/Guardian Judge/Presiding Officer while adjudicating family/guardian/election commission cases. However, the government has expressed its desire to re-introduce separate jurisdictions to deal with higher case-loads.The judges/magistrates have their respective jurisdictions. These are described in CrPCs Schedule by the order of offence committed rather than by the class ranking of a judge. CrPCs Schedules are revised regularly. The lowest rung of the judiciary, i.e Civil Judge Class III, is meant essentially for training purposes. A trainee is generally promoted after six months. The other two levels of jurisdiction, i.e between Civil Judge/Magistrate class II and Civil Judge/Magistrate Class I are more reflective of the reality on ground. The various existing jurisdictions are given on next link of previous menu.