Judiciary saves 60bn/-, case speed satisfactory

By FAUSTINE KAPAMA

THE Judiciary disposed of old cases by 100 and 91 per cent at Primary Court, District and Resident Magistrate’s Courts, respectively, and the Attorney General (AG) saved over 60bn/- after successfully defending the government in different cases last year.

This was revealed yesterday during celebrations to mark Law Day officiated by President John Magufuli at national level in Dar es Salaam. Speaking at the occasion, the Chief Justice (CJ), Prof Ibrahim Juma, disclosed that out of 19,490 cases that were pending before primary courts by December 2017, only 14 of them with the life time of six months, are pending and are considered as old cases. However, he said, primary courts registered an average of 195,119 cases each year, which is 74 per cent of all 264,322 cases, which are opened by all courts in Tanzania.
“This shows that most citizens both in rural and urban areas pursue justice through these primary courts,” the CJ said. At the districts and resident magistrate’s court level, he said, a total number of 2,334 cases had exceeded the age of 12 months, a period which is considered as too old a period to remain in court’s registry. According to him, this is nine per cent of the cases that remained undetermined, out of 25,658.
“These achievements, he said, were based on various strategies that were used to overcome the piling up of cases, which include skills training, implementation of annual plans for each region and district, availability of daily and monthly case statistics, and progressive mobilisationprogrammes. “I take this opportunity to thank all the magistrates and other servants for their efforts of disposing of the cases timely and diligently.
The challenges we experienced in the past in this area have been drastically reduced. We will continue with measures to adjust minor shortcomings,” the head of the Judiciary said. The CJ, however, pointed out that determination of cases at the High Court and Court of Appeal was still a big challenge. He said that statistics showed that a total of 16,487 cases were filed at the High Court last year, while 16, 703 cases were pending.
Prof Juma said a total of 33,190 cases were pending as of January 2017, 28, 307 for 2012; 30,182 for 2013, 35,050 for 2014, 31,521 for 2015 and 36,562 for 2016. The increase, he said, exceeded the normal average a judge was required to handle effectively. He pointed out that while there was an increase of filed cases, statistics showed that the number of judges of the High Court had been decreasing.
The number of judges (in brackets each year) are 2012 (64), 2013 (59), 2014 (71), 2015 (84), 2016 (75) and 2017 (62). The statistics further showed that the average of cases a judge was handling for six consecutive years also increased, as could be noted ( the number of cases in brackets): 2012 (442), 2013 (512), 2014 (494), 2015 (375), 2016 (487) and 2017 (535).
“The increase is above the average of 220 cases of various types brought before each judge for determination every year, thus taking almost 2.5 years to complete the cases without any further increase of cases that can be brought to the person,” he said. He told the President that if the situation were not controlled, the challenge relating to case pile-ups would continue, and tarnish the image of the Judiciary and the country as a whole. The CJ gave an example of 15 tax cases worth 26,818,153.85 US dollars, which remained undetermined.
At the Court of Appeal level, the CJ said, the number of justices had remained 15, which was not enough. While the number of justices had remained the same for the past six years, the number of appeals had been consistently increasing. He explained that in 2012, 2,466 cases were filed; others being 2,629 (2013), 2,916 (2014), 3,244 (2015) 3975 (2016) and 4,439 (2017). Speaking at the same occasion, Deputy Attorney General Gerson Mdeme told the President that his office successfully defended the government between July and December last year, saving 45,414,036,087/06 and 9,647,670.48 US dollars.
He pointed out that in delivering justice, all stakeholders were required to cooperate with the Judiciary in performing its functions to ensure speedy determination of cases. On their part, he said, the office of the AG would continue to support the Judiciary and defend the government in courts diligently. The deputy AG reminded the Judiciary of its constitutional duties of delivering justice to the people, emphasizing that in accordance with its constitution, it was the authority with the final decision in dispensation of justice in the United Republic of Tanzania.
In delivering decisions in matters of civil and criminal nature in accordance with the laws, he said, the court would scrupulously observe several principles, notably impartiality to all without due regard to one’s social or economic status and also not to delay dispensation of justice without reasonable grounds.
The court was to further award reasonable compensation to victims of wrongdoings committed by other persons, and in accordance with the relevant laws enacted by the Parliament and to promote and enhance dispute resolution among persons involved in the disputes. Another principle related to dispensing justice without being tied up with technicalities provisions which could obstruct the dispensation of justice.
“In exercising the powers of dispensing justice, all courts shall have freedom and shall be required only to observe the provisions of the Constitution and those of the laws of the land,” the Deputy AG further said, quoting one of the articles under the constitution