Africa-Press – Uganda. Principal Judge Flavian Zeija has revealed that he has written to 15 more judges to deliver all their pending judgments and rulings.
He denied targeting the head of the Commercial Division of the High Court, Justice Stephen Mubiru, whom he directed to stop hearing any cases in the next 60 days but concentrate on writing and disposing of 170 pending judgments and rulings before him.
“The moment you go above 50 pending judgment and rulings, we agreed at the retreat that you will be entering a danger zone and it’s not wise to continue hearing cases until you have cleared the backlog,”the Principal Judge told by telephone yesterday.
He added: “Unfortunately, I’m travelling upcountry but when I return in office early next week, I will avail you the list of the affected judges but they should be between 10 and 15 in number whom I have written to and have more than 50 pending decisions to clear.”
The Principal Judge also hit out at the Uganda Law Society (ULS) after it questioned the timing of his letter to Justice Mubiru.
The lawyers had described the PJ’s letter as being “retaliatory” to the acidic ruling that Justice Mubiru had made against him, bashing him for directing the deputy registrar of the Commercial Court to recall a garnishee order.
“The judge with the second-highest pending judgments and rulings has 100 of them. The decision was made much earlier. I think Ugandans have a problem. I’m trying to help ULS such that they get judgments. I’m trying to get performance. Judges earn a salary and they should, in turn, work,” the PJ said.
He added: “The registrar is under the Principal Judge and when I notice that there is a problem, I stop it and this was the reason for this particular case of the garnishee order. I can give you an example, there was a garnishee order that was issued against Makerere University and the institution was about to lose Shs2b. I was petitioned and I moved in and stopped the same by writing to the bank. As PJ, I don’t only do court but also administrative activities so you can’t say the PJ can’t address a problem.”
The ULS, had at the weekend, weighed in and castigated the Principal Judge for having directed Justice Mubiru not to hear any other cases until he has rendered decisions in 170 pending judgments and rulings before him. They argued that the Judicature Act does not in any way empower his office to constrain any judge from hearing cases.
“Section 20 you have cited, only empowers your office on distribution of business in the High Court. It does not empower your office to direct how a judge handles his docket, and in particular to refrain from hearing cases already assigned to a judge.”
The lawyers also castigated the administrative head of the High Court for having issued the same draconian directives against Justice Mubiru in what appears to be a “retaliatory move” against him.
“…Secondly, it is particularly troubling that your directive appears to come in the wake of a landmark ruling by Hon Justice Mubiru on the independence of the Judiciary in which he criticised your interference with a decision of a registrar. The timing of your directive makes it appear retaliatory and an attack on Hon Justice Mubiru for his judicial decision,” Mr Bernard Oundo, the president of the ULS wrote to the Principal Judge on Saturday.
Adding: “This does not bode well for public confidence and trust in the Judiciary, and can only have a dampening effect on the confidence of the members of the Judiciary.”
The ULS, a professional body for all lawyers in the country, went on to defend Justice Mubiru as one of the most hardworking jurists who is also good at judgment writing.
“As an individual, the performance of Hon Justice Mubiru has been exemplary for the number of decisions he has delivered and also the quality, depth and reasoning displayed in the decisions,”Mr Oundo wrote.
He added: “We, therefore, seek your audience to deliberate on the subject matter and other related aspects concerning the administration of justice, request for all relevant information concerning the case backlog at the High Court, and disclosure of the caseload handled by each justice of the High Court.”
The Judiciary on Saturday evening, issued a statement, claiming there is no bad blood between the Principal Judge and Justice Mubiru.
The statement further explained the Principal Judge during the 9th quarterly retreat with all the judges, resolved that he would write to all the judges with huge pending case backlog and that it’s against this backdrop that he wrote to Justice Mubiru.
The Commercial Division of the High Court has the highest number of judges deployed there, about 10 of them in a bid to unlock the trillions of money stuck in their in terms of backlogged cases.
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