The head of the Commercial Division of the High Court, Justice Stephen Mubiru, will tomorrow start reading out the 170 pending judgments and rulings before him following a directive from his supervisor, Principal Judge Flavian Zeija, Monitor has learnt.
According to the ruling notices sent to lawyers, copies of which have been seen by this publication, nine cases have been singled out for judgment delivery.
They include; Shumuk Springs Development Ltd and others Vs Bonney Mwebesa Katatumba and others, Jovia Kobusingye & Rory Joseph Harris Vs Mugerwa Andrew, and Isaac Sempala Vs Prof Venansius Baryamureba.
Others are; Sokot Holdings Ltd Vs Saleh Kigoye, alias Swaleh Busigye, and Akok Noon Akok Vs Stanbic Bank.
Last week, the Principal Judge wrote to Justice Mubiru, asking him to halt hearing of cases at his court and concentrate on the writing and delivery of 170 judgments and rulings that were before him.
However, the directive of the administrative head of the High Court to Justice Mubiru appeared to be reactionary to the ruling the latter had delivered in which he had castigated his boss for directing a registrar of the court to recall a garnishee order.
On October 27, the court’s deputy registrar, Ms Catherine Agwero, issued a garnishee order in favour of Mr John Imaniraguha against the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).
Mr Imaniraguha was to that effect supposed to recover Shs26b from the tax body.
However, on October 30, the same deputy registrar issued a contrary order, recalling the same garnishee order. She reasoned to have done so on the administrative directives of the Principal Judge.
In his letter to the registrar of the court that this publication has seen, the Principal Judge explained that the attachment of the government’s main tax collection bank account to recover the money owed to the businessman would be disastrous as it would curtail critical government activities from going on.
“Equally, concerning, I established that proper legal procedures were not followed before the order was granted,” read in part the PJ’s directive to the registrar.
The Uganda Law Society has since castigated the actions of the Principal Judge of ordering Justice Mubiru to halt hearing of cases and first clear the pending judgments and rulings before him.
ULS president Bernard Oundo argued that the Judicature Act does not in any way empower his office to constrain any judge from hearing cases.
The lawyers, too, castigated the administrative head of the High Court for having issued the directives against Justice Mubiru.
Justice Zeija has since denied targeting only Justice Mubiru, saying he has written to about 15 more judges who have many pending judgments. He promised to share with this publication the list of the judges he has written to next week.
Court of Appeal petitioned
Lawyers of Tumusiime Kabega & Co Advocates representing Mr Imaniraguha have since petitioned the Court of Appeal seeking to overturn the decision of Justice Catherine Bamugemereire she made in regard to this same matter.
The lawyers contend that Justice Bamugemereire didn’t have jurisdiction to entertain this matter and that it was erroneous for her to direct the parties to file written submissions on the same.
“The learned Justice of Appeal erred in law and fact when, without jurisdiction, she delved into the merits of both the appeal and the respondent’s application for validation of the appeal and erroneously made findings of fact therein, thereby occasioning a gross miscarriage of justice to the applicant (Mr Imaniraguha),”Mr Imaniraguha’s lawyers wrote to the court on December 8.
It was not clear by press time last evening on whether the Court of Appeal has referred Mr Imaniraguha’s complaint to the full Bench, comprising three justices.
Justice Mubiru set to rule on 170 pending cases - Monitor
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