ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court has ruled that the Registrar’s Office has no authority to declare constitutional petitions non-maintainable and return them, holding that only the court itself can determine whether a petition is maintainable.

Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi issued a six-page written order while deciding a chamber appeal filed against objections raised by the Registrar’s Office.

The court held that questions relating to the maintainability of a petition fall exclusively within the judicial domain and cannot be decided by administrative officials.

According to the ruling, the Registrar’s Office may raise only administrative or procedural objections concerning the filing of petitions. It may return a petition only if it has not been filed in accordance with the applicable court rules.

The judgment emphasized that the Registrar’s Office cannot exercise judicial powers under any circumstances.

The court further observed that granting judicial authority to an administrative officer would violate the constitutional principle of the separation of powers.

It also clarified that the Registrar’s Office has no authority to label a constitutional petition as frivolous or non-serious, as such determinations can only be made by the court.

The ruling was issued in a chamber appeal filed by Razia Aslam, whose constitutional petition had been returned by the Registrar’s Office on February 14 on the ground that it was allegedly non-maintainable.

Challenging those objections, the petitioner approached the Federal Constitutional Court through a chamber appeal, which resulted in the present ruling clarifying the limits of the Registrar’s administrative powers.