Delay often 'extinguishes justice': SC

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court has noted that it cannot remain indifferent to the systemic malaise of delay in the adjudication of cases, adding that justice delayed is not merely justice denied—it is often justice extinguished.

In a four-page verdict on an appeal filed against a high court order in an auction case, the SC lamented that the appeal of the petitioner in the case remained pending before the high court for ten years while it took three years for the SC to take up the matter.

The verdict authored by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah said the question that engaged the attention of the court was not limited to the validity of the auction; rather it extended to whether any meaningful relief could now be granted after the passage of fourteen years. "Even if the petitioner's claim had