''Federation of Pakistan v. Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan'' (1955) was a court case of the

Dominion of Pakistan Between 14 August 1947 and 23 March 1956, Pakistan was an independent federal dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations, created by the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947 by the British parliament, which also created the Dominion of I ...

. The Federal Court of Pakistan (now the Supreme Court of Pakistan) ruled in favor of the Governor General of Pakistan's dismissal of the 1st Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. The dismissal was legally challenged by

Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan (M. T. Khan; March 1889 – 19 August 1963) was the Speaker of Pakistan's Constituent Assembly from 1948 to 1954 and National Assembly of Pakistan between 1962 and 1963. Early life Khan was born to a farmer with only thre ...

, the president of the assembly. Except one dissenting opinion, the majority of the court supported the dismissal on grounds of the doctrine of necessity. The verdict was considered a blow to democratic norms, which had ramifications in modern-day

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, and led to the dismissal being described as a constitutional coup.

Facts

In 1954, Governor General Ghulam Muhammad dissolved the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. Earlier, he dismissed Prime Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin who enjoyed the confidence of the constituent assembly. Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan, the President of the Constituent Assembly and a representative from

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

, challenged the Governor General's actions in the

Sindh High Court The High Court of Sindh ( ur, ) is the highest judicial institution of the Pakistani province of Sindh. Established in 1906, the Court situated in the provincial capital at Karachi. Apart from being the highest Court of Appeal for Sindh in ...

, where the dissolution was ruled as '' ultra vires''. The federal government appealed in the country's apex Federal Court.

Judgement

In 1955, the Federal Court led by Chief Justice Muhammad Munir ruled in support of the Governor General. The court suspended the decision of the High Court and held the Governor General, and not the Constituent Assembly, to be the sovereign authority. The court opined that

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

can only be given by the Governor General as Pakistan was still a

dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

and hence not a fully independent country. It gave the decision based on technical grounds that the section of Government of India Act of 1935 in question was not applied to this case because the governor general had not assent to it.

Dissent

A lone dissenting opinion was given by Justice Alvin Robert Cornelius who argued Pakistan was indeed an independent country within the Commonwealth.

Significance

Some believe, the verdict dealt a blow to the notion of

parliamentary supremacy Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all ...

in Pakistan, whereas Pakistan was already an independent dominion created by the

Indian Independence Act 1947 The Indian Independence Act 1947 947 CHAPTER 30 10 and 11 Geo 6is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that partitioned British India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan. The Act received Royal Assent on 18 J ...

. The British parliament enjoyed parliamentary supremacy in its own

realm A realm is a community or territory over which a sovereign rules. The term is commonly used to describe a monarchical or dynastic state. A realm may also be a subdivision within an empire, if it has its own monarch, e.g. the German Empire. Etym ...

. But the Federal Court's verdict stripped Pakistan's parliamentary supremacy, even though Pakistan itself was an independent realm headed by the Queen of Pakistan. The verdict paved way for the future judiciary to support unconstitutional and undemocratic actions, such as military coups. The doctrine of necessity was applied by successive Pakistani and Bangladeshi courts to validate the actions of

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

authorities.

References

{{reflist 1955 in case law Pakistani constitutional law Constitution of Bangladesh Supreme Court of Pakistan cases

Facts

Judgement

Dissent

Significance

See also

References