ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court’s five-member constitutional bench on Monday issued notices to Islamabad High Court judges and others on please challenging recent transfer of high court judges to the IHC and the subsequent changes in the judicial seniority. The top court’s constitutional bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Shakeel Ahmed — took up the plea filed by five IHC judges, the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) and the IHC Bar Association, among others. After hearing preliminary arguments, the SC bench stated: “Points raised require consideration, let notices be issued to the respondents in all aforesaid cases. Notices also be issued in terms of Order XXVIII-A, Rule 1, of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, to the learned attorney general of Pakistan and all the advocates general of provinces as well as the advocate general of the Islamabad Capital Territory for 17,04, 2025 at 11:30am.” In February this year, five judges of the IHC moved the SC against the appointment of Justice Sarfraz Dogar as the acting chief justice of IHC as well as transfer of judges from three high courts to the capital’s high court. Five IHC judges — Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Justice Saman Riffat Imtiaz — filed a petition in the top court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. The IHC judges urged the apex court to declare that the president does not have unfettered and unbridled discretion to transfer judges from one high court to another, under Article 200(1) of the Constitution, without a manifest public interest, and in a manner that hampers the principles of independence of judiciary and separation of powers. The five IHC jurists also prayed the apex court to declare that in line with the settled law pronounced by the highest court in the case of Aslam Awan and Farrukh Irfan, the inter-se seniority of Respondents No 9-11 shall be determined from the date they take oath as justices of the IHC and will consequently be lower in the seniority list to the petitioners.