AKEEL AHMAD vs CHAIRMAN, PUNJAB PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, LAHORE S

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AKEEL AHMAD VS CHAIRMAN, PUNJAB PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, LAHORE S. 12---Qanun-e-Shahadat (10 of 1984), Art. 76---Certified copy of a document---Scope---Judgment on website of the High Court---Admissibility---Office objection---Some pages of a judgment were downloaded from the official website of the Court and was produced, which was not accepted---Validity---Perusal of the said pages showed that apparently the same comprised of an unsigned copy of judgment passed in the case, however, nothing was available on the record to substantiate that the said pages had been downloaded from the official website of the Court and had remained un-altered or un-changed thereafter---Besides, there was no mechanism available with the office of the Court to verify whether the said copy had been compared with the original judgment/order of the Court by any competent authority and was free from errors and omissions so as to be treated as a true and real copy of the judgment actually passed by the Court---Moreover, such a copy had neither been made per se admissible in a Court of law as evidence of what had been decided therein through permission granted by the Lahore High Court Rules and Orders nor by any notification issued by the Court in that regard rather the said copies were uploaded subject to all just and legal exceptions and were not claimed to be authentic and true copies of the orders actually passed by the Court and free from errors and omissions---Section 12 of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance, 2002 although made an electronically generated printout of documents admissible as evidence as a true copy of the original document/order yet the same had been made admissible subject to the condition that the print out or other form of electronic documents in addition to fulfillment of requirements specified in applicable law were also verified in the manner that might be laid down by the appropriate authority---Moreover, the said copy was an unsigned copy downloaded by the petitioner himself, statedly from the official website, without any involvement of and authentication by the office of High Court---Such a copy could be allowed to be placed on the record where the High Court would have permitted the same or made the same as admissible---Hence a copy claimed to be downloaded from official website of High Court could not be treated as an equivalent or at par with the certified copy---In the present case, the said copy had not been placed on the record as an impugned order rather the same had been placed on the record for reference only---Said unattested and unsigned copy of the judgment available on the file as an annexure comprised of 23 pages and had 41 paragraphs and it was not possible for High Court while hearing the objection case to determine whether the said copy was an exact copy of judgment passed by High Court and was free from errors or omissions to allow the same to be retained on the file by treating the same as atpar with an authentic document---Office objection was sustained.

AKEEL AHMAD vs CHAIRMAN, PUNJAB PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, LAHORE S — 2024 PLD 228 LAHORE-HIGH-COURT-LAHORE

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