Judiciary deploys Justice Chirwa to Mzuzu

The Judiciary has assigned one more judge to the High Court in Mzuzu despite calls to have at least three judges in the Northern Region to facilitate speedy disposal of cases.

The High Court in Mzuzu has been operating with only Justice Dingiswayo Madise and the development caused cases to pile up and others not to be attended to.

Last year, Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda and Malawi Law Society (MLS) agreed that Mzuzu should have visiting judges from Lilongwe and Blantyre to help Madise preside over civil cases.

However, the arrangement proved costly and faced challenges as, at some point, judges stopped going to Mzuzu.

The development forced civil society organisations and lawyers to protest and call on government to deploy two more judges by end of March.

It has since been established that Blantyre-based judge, John Chirwa, has been assigned to Mzuzu leaving the number of judges in Blantyre at 11.

Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula confirmed the allocation of Justice Chirwa to Mzuzu on Thursday, saying he is expected to report for duties in March.

He said Chirwa should help meet the demand for justice in the Northern Region.

“As the Judiciary we also appreciate challenges people face in seeking justice due to shortage of judges. Northern Region is too big to be managed by one judge,” said Mvula.

He described the deployment as short-term measure, saying more judges will be deployed to Mzuzu once some more have been appointed.

MLS president John Suzi-Banda said the assigning of Justice Chirwa to Mzuzu is a positive development.

He said already there is shortage of judges in the country and to transfer a judge from one station is not an easy decision.

“We are heading in the right direction and as Malawi Law Society we commend the Judiciary for that,” said Suzi-Banda.