LAHORE - District and Sessions Judge Abid Hussain Qureshi on Monday removed all 49 Ahlmeds or court clerks on corruption charges.

These clerks were posted at City, Model Town and Cantonment district courts. The judge took extreme action against the clerks attached to special judicial magistrates and performing duties as summary clerks after complaints of corruption poured in against them and reports of their corruption appeared in different sections of the media. He also directed them to report to his office for further orders.

The order says, “…all the Ahlmed-I performing the duty of summery clerks, are removed there from and are directed to report to this office by tomorrow i.e. 13.11.2018…”

The judge also directed all special judicial magistrates dealing with summary work to keep a close eye on their staff to plug any malpractice. He directed them to submit a fortnight report regarding receipt and deposit of fines in the government treasury.

The court clerks demand bribe from litigants as well as lawyers even for their legal tasks and the practice is commonly observed in the courts of sessions judges, special judges, civil judges as well as magistrates across Lahore district.

For the first time in the history, a district and sessions judge has taken such a step in order to eradicate corruption from the judiciary. Litigants have to give bribe for each and every task such as getting next dates in the absence of judges and attested or unattested copies of difference court documents. In case of putting up resistance, they prolong the process.

In addition, they demand bribe as their “right”, especially when a judgement or decision is announced from the judgment-debtor. The clerks, including reader, stenographers and Ahlmeds, extort money from the party, which wins the case.

Most of the surety bonds that are submitted in various courts for grant of interim and permanent bails are submitted on fake documents or by fake persons who misrepresent the original owners of properties. The illegal practice is order of the day because of the cooperation of the court staffers who have to be heavily bribed by bail seekers.

Not to speak of illegal surety bonds, petitioners seeking bail on the basis of original documents and original surety have to give bribe to court staff to get the task done on time.

Similarly, at one stage in the legal proceedings, when notices are not served on and not received by defendants and respondents, the court orders advertisement in different newspapers so as to inform them about the cases filed against them regarding civil matters. The process of advertisement in the name of defendants is also filled with malpractice. The court staff has fixed their share in the amount newspapers’ representatives deployed in the court receive from plaintiffs and petitioners.

Meanwhile, lawyers Syed Kazim Bukhari of the Supreme Court, Rana Khalid Mehmood Advocate, Sardar Shahnawaz Hanjara Advocate and Hassan Abbas Advocate praised the action against corrupt Ahlmeds and demanded such action against all corrupt staff in the judiciary.

In the above mentioned circumstances, the step taken by the district judge against the summary clerks to eradicate corruption from the judiciary is praiseworthy and needs to be replicated in the entire judicial system to relieve the litigants.