CJP Afridi denies NOC to Justice Mansoor Ali Shah for international conference

Justice Mansoor had been invited by Yale Law School in the United States to join its annual conference, Global Constitutionalism 2025, held from September 10 to 13.

According to reports, the institution has extended this invitation to him for the past five years. The conference brings together senior judges from different jurisdictions along with leading academics from Yale, Harvard, and Princeton.

Justice Mansoor was scheduled to present a paper on the role of artificial intelligence in judicial systems. Yale Law School had also written directly to the CJP, requesting his official nomination for the event. On August 6, Justice Mansoor personally forwarded the same request.

However, the Supreme Court’s Registrar informed the organizers that the new judicial year was beginning on September 8 with a full-court session. This annual meeting, which reviews the court’s programme and outlines its priorities, requires the attendance of all judges as a matter of institutional practice. For this reason, the court stated it could not accommodate Justice Mansoor’s absence.

Despite this, Justice Mansoor wrote again on August 15, urging reconsideration and citing reasons in favor of the NOC. His request was turned down.

Earlier this year, in February, his application for leave to attend arbitration events in Saudi Arabia had also been rejected, compelling him to cancel that trip as well.