The Supreme Court (SC) has warned that delays in the judicial process at any level erode public confidence, undermine the rule of law, and disproportionately harm vulnerable individuals who cannot afford lengthy legal battles. This was reported by The News on Saturday.
A two-member bench, consisting of Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ayesha Malik, made these observations in a four-page judgment while dismissing a petition by Abdul Salam Khan against a Peshawar High Court verdict in a property auction case. The court noted that the case had been pending for 14 years—10 of which were in the high court—before it reached the Supreme Court in 2022 and was taken up in 2025.
In the verdict, Justice Shah pointed out the case’s 10-year delay at the PHC and stated that the SC could not “remain indifferent to the systemic malaise of delay in the adjudication of cases.” He emphasized that “it is beyond cavil that delay in adjudicating cases by the courts at any tier of the justice system corrodes public confidence in the judiciary, undermines the rule of law, and disproportionately harms the weak and vulnerable who cannot afford the cost of prolonged litigation.”
Justice Shah also warned that “delay in adjudication carries severe macroeconomic and societal consequences: it deters investment, renders contracts illusory, and weakens the institutional legitimacy of the judiciary.”
The judge highlighted that over 2.2 million cases are currently pending in courts across Pakistan, including approximately 55,941 cases before the SC alone. He remarked that “justice delayed is not merely justice denied; it is often justice extinguished.”
Calling the issue a matter of institutional policy and constitutional responsibility, Justice Shah urged the SC to “urgently transition toward a modern, responsive, and intelligent case management framework.” He noted that such a system must, at a minimum, ensure: the early and non-discriminatory fixation of cases; the elimination of “queue-jumping” and preferential scheduling; the prioritization of matters of constitutional, economic, or national importance without compromising the timely resolution of individual claims; the implementation of age-tracking protocols to automatically identify dormant cases; and the judicious use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to assist in scheduling and triaging while preserving judicial discretion.
