APM, Muhara slapped with K69m bill
Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has warned public officers that they will pay heavily for any “constitutional delinquency” in the discharge of their duties.
The sentiments follow yesterday’s High Court order for former president Peter Mutharika and former secretary to President and Cabinet Lloyd Muhara to pay K69.5 million as costs for applicants in the Chief Justice Case.
The court found the two guilty of sending Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda and Justice of Appeal Edward Twea on forced leave pending retirement.
In an interview after the ruling, one of the lawyers for HRDC and Associations for Magistrates in Malawi, who are also the 1st and 2nd applicants, Khumbo Soko, said the case has set a new precedent and that public officers will now be liable for costs of their misconduct.
Said Soko: “A message has now been sent that there will now be personal costs for constitutional delinquency. This is a warning to those holding public offices that a day of reckoning will surely come.”
In his ruling assistant registrar Patrick Chirwa, who is also chief resident magistrate, observed that the 1st and 2nd applicants submitted 85 percent as care and conduct, the 3rd applicant Malawi Law Society proposed 75 percent while lawyer for Mutharika and Muhara submitted 40 percent.
He explained that considering the circumstances, the nature and importance of the case, the court settled for anything above 70 percent.
Chirwa also indicated that according to the Hourly Rate Rules of 2018, the hourly rate for lawyers of the applicants fall in the K40 000 category which the court adopted in assessing costs in the matter.
Mutharika’s Charles Mhango told journalists outside the court that he welcomed the ruling as it has reduced costs after the applicants initially applied for K170 million.
He added that he will have to be guided by his clients on how the payment will be made.
Said Mhango: “According to rules of the court, when there are more than one party who have been ordered by the court to pay party and party costs, the rule is that they share 50-50. We have since requested the court that the matter be resolved internally.”
Beforethe Mutharika administration was ousted from power through the June 23 court-sanctioned fresh presidential election, they wrote the Chief Justice and Justice Twea to proceed on leave pending retirement.
This was after the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the ruling by the High Court, sitting as a Constitutional Court to annul the 2020 presidential election and ordered a fresh poll.
Judge Charles Mkandawire who presided over a judicial review of the case in his earlier ruling said Mutharika and Muhara should be made personally liable to pay costs, and the court ordered so, further instructing the registrar to assess the costs.
