Summary Administrative office limited to procedural scrutiny under court rules
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Federal Constitutional Court has ruled that a registrar has no authority to declare a constitutional petition inadmissible or return it on that basis, stating that only the court can determine whether a petition is fit to be heard.
The ruling came in a six-page written judgment issued by Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi on a chamber appeal filed against objections raised by the registrar’s office. The court described the registrar’s role as purely administrative and clarified the limits of the office’s powers when processing constitutional petitions.
According to the judgment, the registrar’s office may raise only administrative or procedural objections. It can return a petition only if it has not been filed in accordance with the applicable rules and procedures.
The court made it clear that the registrar’s office cannot exercise judicial powers under any circumstances. It observed that the Constitution provides no scope for delegating judicial authority to an administrative officer, making such an exercise of power unconstitutional.
The judgment further stated that granting judicial authority to an administrative official would violate the constitutional principle of separation of powers, which clearly distinguishes the functions of the judiciary from those of administrative offices.
The Federal Constitutional Court also ruled that the registrar’s office is not authorised to declare a constitutional petition frivolous or lacking merit. Such determinations, it said, fall exclusively within the jurisdiction of the court.
According to the written verdict, the registrar’s office had returned Razia Aslam’s constitutional petition on 14 February after objecting that it was inadmissible. The petitioner subsequently filed a chamber appeal challenging that decision.
The court accepted the chamber appeal and, while deciding the matter, laid down the broader legal principle that questions relating to the admissibility or merits of constitutional petitions must be determined solely by the court, with the registrar’s office remaining confined to administrative scrutiny under the relevant procedural rules.
