Africa-Press – Uganda. The Constitutional Court has been asked to declare the law of idle and disorderly redundant and unconstitutional.
The petitioner, Mr Francis Tumwesige Ateenyi, a lawyer and executive director of Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) September 19 argued that “sections 168 (1)c and 168 (1)d) of the Penal Code Act are used to violate the rights of the poor and marginalised members of society who are arrested and prosecuted under this law.”
He further explained that sections 168(c) and 168(d) of the Penal Code Act are discriminatory in nature and social status as they were farmed by the colonial master to clump down on the poor.
“The subsection is so vague that it empowers the police to arbitrary arrest and detain any person that they find objectionable in the absence of a reasonable suspicion and on the assumption of an illegal and disorderly purpose thus derogating from the provisions of Article 21(1) of the constitution that guarantees equality under and before the law,” Mr Tumwesige submitted.
He further argued that the said sections take away the presumption of innocence.
“The subsection in failing to define illegal or disorderly purpose results in arbitrary arrest and a lack of consistency in application of the law thus resulting in police carrying out illegal arrests,” Mr Tumwesige submitted.
However, the Attorney General’s office has asked the court to dismiss the petition reasoning that these sections help to maintain law and order among members of the public.
“The discretion to arrest and or limit a person’s freedom of movement is to allow for the maintenance of law and order and not based on social status. The right to personal liberty is not absolute,” reads in part the AG’s submission.
“Police is only obligated to arrest a person who is suspected of or about to commit a crime. This is because police has a constitutional obligation to prevent and detect crime. The aforesaid impugned sections do not empower the police to arrest poor people as the petitioner alleges,” the AG maintains.
The AG further reasoned that “arrest by police is not an automatic conviction as the due process entails that an arrested person be prosecuted before a competent court.
A panel of five justices of the Constitutional Court led by Frederick Engonda Ntende heard the petition and set the ruling to be delivered on notice at an undisclosed date.
Other judges are Elizabeth Musoke, Christopher Madrama, Monica Mugyenyi and Christopher Gashirabake.
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