ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred till May 17 framing of contempt of Court charges against senator Babar Awan, former law minister, after his counsel apprised it that a three-member

bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry would take up an Intra Court Appeal (ICA) over the same matter on Wednesday.

A two-Judge bench comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Athar Saeed put off proceedings on the request of barrister Ali Zafar, who apprised the bench that before framing of charges, the bench should wait for a decision on his client’s ICA.

The bench had resumed hearing of a suo motu notice taken on Babar Awan’s address at a press conference held in Press Information Department on December 2, after initial order of the larger bench on memo issue.

On April 24, the bench had announced its reserved judgement over framing of contempt charges by saying that they could not drop the proceeding at this stage and set April 26 to indict him for contempt of court.

Barrister Ali Zafar, counsel for Babar Awan, had contended that his client had tendered a written apology which must be considered and the further proceedings for framing of contempt of court charges should be dropped.

He argued that it was not known in the judicial history of the country that after tendering of an apology, the contempt proceedings should continue.

He said there was no judgement over continuation of contempt under such circumstances.