Court dismisses case against judges’ transfers
The High Court has dismissed a private citizen’s application for a judicial review in a case where the Chief Justice was sued over transfers of two judges from the Mzuzu registry.
Concerned citizen Leonard Kapatika Chipeta first applied to the High Court in 2013 seeking an order to stop the transfer of High Court judges Dingiswayo Madise and John Chirwa to the principal registry in Blantyre and Zomba registry, respectively.
Through his lawyers, Chipeta argued that the Chief Justice’s decision negatively affected the delivery of justice and violated the right to access justice for people in the Northern Region who would be left with only one judge compared to 24 in the Central and Southern regions.
But after a long legal battle, Lilongwe-based High Court Judge Charles Mkandawire has dismissed the application on the basis that Chipeta failed to demonstrate how the Chief Justice and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC)—who were named as first and second respondent, respectively—violated the right to access to justice by failing to replace the transferred judges.
In a judgement The Nation has seen, the judge ruled that the addition of the JSC as a party to the case was not justifiable and argued that there was no proof that the applicant’s other case at Mzuzu registry had been affected by the actions of the Chief Justice.
The Mzuzu High Court registry’s current sole judge is Dorothy De Gabrielle after Madise was transferred to Blantyre and NyakwawaUsiwaUsiwa, who was transferred from Blantyre as the second judge, died in a road accident in Lilongwe soon after taking up his post.
Chipeta’s lawyers were not immediately available for their reaction to the judgment yesterday while and senior State advocate Apoche Itimu welcomed the ruling.
