Justice goes to sleep in the North

Multitasking by the Northern Region’s sole High Court judge Dingiswayo Madise has paralysed justice delivery at the court’s Mzuzu registry this week with some scheduled cases failing to be heard or decided.

The Nation has established that Madise was scheduled to handle eight cases this week and that the cases were likely to be pended as the judge and court clerks were engaged in other activities.

The situation validates concerns by Malawi Law Society (MSL) Mzuzu Chapter that Madise, despite being a hard worker, is overwhelmed as there are several issues he has to attend to within and outside the region.

High Court of Malawi assistant registrar Dick Sankhulani yesterday confirmed that the cases scheduled for this week had been put on hold.

He said four cases were scheduled for Tuesday and four for Wednesday, but the judge only managed to hear one case on Tuesday and there was also an arrangement to hear another case this Wednesday. The remaining six would be rescheduled, according to Sankhulani.

The registrar said Madise will also be out of the region on Thursday and Friday, a development that would bar lawyers from accessing injunctions.

Said Sankhulani: “There was an arrangement for a training here in Mzuzu. The training was supposed to start on Monday and all the court clerks were to be part of the training. So, we communicated to lawyers that the judge will not be able to attend to cases.”

Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula yesterday said the situation in Mzuzu was unfortunate.

He said the Judiciary had no option as Madise needed to attend to other matters. He said if the appointing authority hired more judges, there would be no such problems.

Madise serves a population of about 1 708 930 people in the Northern Region while seven judges are based at the Lilongwe registry for a population of 5 510 195 in the Central Region. In Blantyre, there are 12 judges for a 5.8 million population and Zomba has two judges. Blantyre has many judges because it is the headquarters of the Judiciary and handles a higher volume of cases.

Shortage of judges has been a major cry for court users in the Northern Region as cases take long to be concluded.

Three weeks ago, MLS Mzuzu Chapter petitioned Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda to assign an additional judge for Mzuzu to speed up justice delivery.

In response, Nyirenda, who met the petitioners in Mzuzu on May 26, said balancing the number of judges in the court regions is a tough task as the country only has 22 High Court judges.

He said in the meantime, judges from Lilongwe will be assisting in Mzuzu.

Nyirenda said the Judiciary needs about K8 billion (US$17.8 million) annually to effectively operate.

However, in the current 2014/15 financial year that ends on June 30, the Judiciary was allocated funds in the range of K3 billion (US$6.7 million) to K4 billion (US$8.9 million).

The Judiciary is also on record as having said that it currently has four or five vacancies for judges although the country needs between 10 and 20 more judges for effective delivery of justice.