Admiralty Jurisdiction of High Courts Ordinance, 1980

This 1980 Ordinance consolidates the law on which Pakistani High Courts can hear maritime ("admiralty") disputes and what kinds of claims fall within that jurisdiction. Section 3 gives the Sindh High Court and the Balochistan High Court full Admiralty jurisdiction within their territories, while the Lahore and Peshawar High Courts only have that jurisdiction over cases involving aircraft. The list of claims covered is extensive: disputes over ownership or possession of a ship, disputes between co-owners of a ship, mortgages or charges on a ship, damage caused by or to a ship, loss of life or personal injury linked to a ship's operation, loss of or damage to cargo, salvage claims, towage and pilotage claims, claims for ship repairs or dock charges, seamen's wage claims, and claims arising from general average or bottomry (Section 3(2)).

Section 4 explains how this jurisdiction can be invoked: for most claims, through an ordinary lawsuit against a person ("in personam"); for certain claims like ownership disputes or salvage, through an action directly against the ship or property itself ("in rem"), including in some cases against a "sister ship" beneficially owned by the same person as the ship actually involved in the claim. Section 5 restricts personal lawsuits over collisions and similar claims to cases where the defendant lives or does business in Pakistan, the incident happened in Pakistani waters, or a related case is already before a Pakistani court, and bars double litigation if a case on the same incident is already proceeding abroad.

Section 6 sets a time limit: no action to enforce a maritime lien (for example, for collision damage) may be brought more than two years after the damage occurred or the lien arose, though the High Court has discretion to extend this period. Section 7 allows an appeal from a single judge's Admiralty decision to a bench of two or more judges of the same High Court, and a further appeal to the Supreme Court is only possible if the amount in dispute is at least one lakh rupees and the Supreme Court grants leave. Section 9 repeals the older Courts of Admiralty (Pakistan) Act, 1891 and two British Admiralty Court Acts, while protecting claims against the Federation or its naval/air force ships and property from being enforced by seizure under this Ordinance.