Appeal Court targets to start hearing 2,627 cases

MAUREEN ODUNGA

THE Court of Appeal is intending to start hearing about 2,627 pending cases filed before 2015 as among strategies to dispose existing backlog cases in the country.

Justice Mbarouk Salim Mbarouk of the Court of Appeal said in Dar es Salaam yesterday at a stakeholders meeting, citing that 540 cases acquired a life span of more than two years.
“The court has allocated five days in four weeks to hear the cases of which the first meeting is scheduled to begin this month while applying the method of first in first out fomular, said Justice Mbarouk.
He emphasised on the need for representing lawyers to attend court sessions so as to amend existing defects and overcome adjournment of cases. Justice Mbarouk also called on responsible prison officers to present the appellants in court to attend to their cases.
“The session will put into special consideration cases marked as matters of urgency and then attend to the others between the set period,” he noted. He presented statistics of cases between 2012 and 2016, pointing out that in 2012 about 924 cases were filed of which 583 were disposed.
Justice Mbarouk went on to cite that 870 cases were filed in 2013 and 850 cases were heard, the rest includes 991 filed in 2014. Others include 1,222 cases in 2015 and heard 883 cases and 1,449 in 2016 of which 1,273 case were disposed.
“The figures are a true reflection that efforts have been done by the Judiciary in disposing backlog cases,” pointed out Justice Mbarouk. He cited challenges resulting to backlog cases as lack of required documentation in the case files, limited staff, financial constraints and lack of enough working tools.
Other factors include removal of cases by parties which lead to unnecessary adjournments, existence of pointless objections at initial stages and some of the lawyers disqualifying themselves while handling cases.