One of the troubles a judicial officer has to deal with is delivering judgements that can put an end to a conflict once and for all. It is rare that cases handled by Courts will not be appealed when the verdict is delivered.
That is why in Uganda, cases mostly in civil matters will take up to five years to finally be resolved if they were first filed at the Chief Magistrate Court level. In this instance, the dissatisfied party will run to the High Court to appeal against the decision of the lower Court.
In most cases, it is at the High Court level that most cases will stagnate since the Judges are not only handling appeals from the lower Courts but also fresh matters that are filed at that level. It becomes even worse after the general elections where Judges will be taken off station to heal election petitions arising out of Parliamentary elections.
While at their retreat at the Lake Victoria Serena Hotel-Kigo in January 2022, the Judges of the High Court deliberated on how to reduce the case backlog.
On enhancing case management, the Judges called for the acquisition of adequate ICT equipment to facilitate online hearings and delivery of Judgments/rulings.
Other recommendations included a resolve to provide performance targets per judicial officer, evaluation of performance in percentages of targets set in the work plans, and inclusion of backlog performance of magisterial courts in the respective supervising Circuits case backlog reports.
By the time of this retreat, the High Court had and continues to have 83 Judges. This number came as a result of an increment from 49 in 2017.
Now, there is hope that the case backlog and time litigants spend in Court will reduce after Parliament on Tuesday passed a resolution to have the number of High Court Judges increased to 151 in the 2023/2024 financial year.
The resolution followed a motion presented to Parliament by Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, Norbert Mao who said that this was in consideration of a Cabinet decision of August 9, 2021 to approve the revised Judiciary Service Establishment/Structure for Judicial Officers.
“We began this good work when you (Parliament) enacted the Administration of Judiciary Act. We have 83 Judges and most Judges when you visit their chambers you can hardly see them because there are heaps of files covering them” said Mao.
The Minister said that the intention of the government is to increase access to judicial services. He added that access to justice is the ultimate goal of the government hence a need to increase the number of High Court Judges.
While seconding the motion, Deputy Attorney General, Jackson Kafuuzi commended Parliament for increasing the funding to the Judiciary adding that, it is on that basis that government wants to have more Judges appointed.
“Because the funding has increased it is imperative that judicial officers be spread out so that justice can be dispensed. As parliament we demand for value for money, we can only achieve that value for money when we add more members to the bench. Then matters can be resolved within six months” Said Kafuuzi.
MPs react
John Bosco Okiror the Usuk County MP said that the Judiciary after receiving more Judges should get rid of criminal sessions which are conducted after two to four years when suspects are on remand.
A criminal session is conducted in a Magisterial area at a time when a High Court Judge of a particular circuit decides to handle many criminal trials in a given period of time. A case in point is the ongoing criminal session at the Kasese Chief Magistrate Court where Fort Portal High Court Resident Judge Vincent Mugabo has been hearing 40 cases including murder, aggravated defilement, rape and robbery among others.
“One of the cardinal principles in administration of Justice is that justice should be delayed. Most of our criminal matters in this country are heard on a session basis. If we are increasing the number of Judges in the High Court, it is fair enough that the criminal cases that we have in the country are heard not on session” he suggested.
Mukono North MP Abdallah Kiwanuka while supporting the motion, argued for the Minister to ensure that with the increment of Judges of the High Court, the threshold of the amount of money involving cases to be tried by Chief Magistrates be looked at.
Civil matters involving more than Shs50m cannot be entertained by the Chief Magistrates hence making the High Court crowded with cases of land and breach of contracts.
He said that such a threshold makes the Magistrates serving in mostly the central region idle because the value of land in the area is high.
“I appreciate there are challenges regarding backlog in the High Court because of the limited restriction of Magistrates to handle cases of only Shs50m. I would like the Minister to visit the courts and you will find Chief Magistrates seated. In Buganda you can’t find a piece of land that is below 50m.” he said.
Workers MP, Agnes Kunihira also weighed in on the need to have more Judges of the High Court adding that the same consideration should be made for the Industrial Court where only two Judges are supposed to dispense justice on over 2000 labour related files. The Industrial Court which is separate from the seven divisions of the High Court is supposed to have at least five Judges who are assisted by a panel of five representatives of workers, five representatives of employers and five independent members.
At the High Court the seven divisions are; the Anti- Corruption; Civil; Commercial; Criminal; Family; International Crimes and Land.
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa also asked the Executive to consider increasing the number of State Prosecutors to help the Judges trial the criminal cases timely.
Minister Mao while responding to issues raised by the legislators said that there is draft of planned amendments to the Judicature Act so as to cure the “absurdity” of the Shs50m threshold on cases to be heard by the Chief Magistrate and also raise the threshold of contracts to be reviewed by the Attorney General’s chambers from the current Shs200m to a higher figure.
He also revealed that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) is currently conducting a recruitment process for additional State Attorneys.
“The ODPP is recruiting today, they sat aptitude tests. But in order to have 360-degree success, we must also support the police to be with the capacity to investigate. Many cases are delayed on grounds that investigations are going on” the Minister said.
Also facing the backlog are the Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court which has 15 Justices and the Supreme Court which is currently having a vacuum of two Justices after the demise of Justice Rubby Opio Aweri and Lady Justice Stella Arach-Amako.
