Law:

Section:

(a) Code of Conduct for Superior Judges-Art. IV-Bias-Disqualification of Judge to sit at trial-Judge, in absence of any' constitutional or statutory bar, not disqualified from sitting at trial of a person merely for reason of having participated in other legal proceeding against such person whether -in. capacity of a Judge, or of an Administrative Tribunal or official - ­Basis of disqualification-Personal bias or prejudice of such nature as would render Judge unable to exercise his functions impartially­ Personal bias or prejudice must also, however, be shown as a matter of fact and not as a matter of mere opinion or suspicion-Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898), S. 556. No specific allegations had been made against the Justice. All that was said was that since he was, before being elevated to the Bench of the Supreme Court, a Secretary in the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Govern­ment of Pakistan, he might have, in that capacity, had occasion to deal with the question of the banning of the National Awami Party at some stage or the other, since one of the Ministers of the Government of Pakistan, who was also at one stage a Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, had publicly stated that the question of the. banning of the Party was under .examination for over a period of 2/3' years, during which period the Justice ,was Secretary of the Ministry concerned. Held: No Judge can possibly be disqualified on the basis of such a vague and nebulous suggestion. Mere suspicion of bias, even if it is not unreason­able, is not sufficient to disqualify a Judge. In the present case. however, even the suspicion is wholly unreasonable, because, it does not necessarily follow that it is the Ministry of Law which must have examined the question of banning of the Party or that the Secretary of the Ministry had of necessity to deal with this question. Most of the witnesses confirm that the examina­tion of the question of the banning of the Party was done mainly by the Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan and not the Ministry of Law. So far as the other Justice is concerned, it is said that since he has already dealt with the question of the continuance of the…

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