PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has held that footnotes included in judicial decisions form an integral part of those judgments and must be published in their entirety.
The court directed publishers and electronic legal databases to ensure that court rulings are made available in their original and complete form, including all footnotes.The public-interest petition was filed by Barrister Asad-ul-Mulk, who pointed out that PLD Publishers and its affiliated company, Oratier Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, frequently omitted footnotes while publishing reported court judgments in their electronic database.
The petition was heard on June 9 by a two-member bench comprising Justice Ejaz Anwar and Justice Babar Sattar. The petitioner appeared along with his counsel, Advocate Shakiruddin, while Barrister Ibrahim Khan Afridi represented PLD Publishers. Justice Babar Sattar subsequently issued a detailed judgment in the case.
Addressing the maintainability of the petition, the court held that the matter involved the enforcement of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 10-A, 18 and 19-A of the Constitution.
It observed that the petitioner, being both a citizen and a practicing lawyer, could be regarded as an aggrieved person with standing to bring the matter before the court.The judgment stated that any court decision or order approved for reporting or publication must be reproduced accurately and in full, as such judgments either establish legal principles or determine important questions of law.
Referring to various provisions of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance, 2002, the court held that the integrity of a document must remain intact for it to be recognized in electronic form, and that no alterations or modifications should be made to its contents.
The court ruled that the complete text of a judicial order, including footnotes and references, constitutes part of the judgment. Consequently, every publisher and electronic repository is legally bound to present judicial decisions to the public in their original and unaltered form.
Directing the respondents to implement measures proposed to address the omission of footnotes, the court also observed that tampering with or falsifying judicial decisions could, in certain circumstances, attract criminal liability. It added that such actions might also give rise to civil liabilities under intellectual property laws, consumer protection laws and the law of torts.
Concluding its judgment, the PHC directed both the federal and provincial governments to exercise their respective legal powers to ensure that judicial decisions made available to the public are complete, accurate and presented in their original form.
