Delay of Commercial Cases in Tanzania: The Judiciary to tackle red tape

Veneranda Sumila (The Citizen reporter)

Chief Justice, Mohamed Chande has signed new High Court (Commercial Division) Procedure Rules, 2012 which intend to enhance the efficiency of the division by eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy which leads to case hearing delays.

The new Rules also intend to enhance the application of information communication technologies in the administration of justice, which in turn would increase the court's accountability, transparency and delivery.

Opening the roundtable discussion of the Commercial Division of the High Court of Tanzania, Judge Chande said case delay was a sign of an inefficient judicial system and that if not properly managed it might lead to unmanageable case backlogs, which in turn, would clog up the courts.

He said courts effective in solving commercial disputes would increase investment attraction and strengthen the business environment in the country. This will boost the country's economic development.

"To attain those objectives, the commercial court division is duty bound to determine commercial cases timely, effectively and efficiently," said Mr Chande adding: "In designing the rules, account was taken to tailor them to promoting the business environment."

He said the new rules which will start to be applied next month will shorten days of determining commercial cases from the current 462 to 365 and will gradually reduce the period to 270 days by 2017. "Once that target is achieved case delays will be drastically reduced," he said.

According to Mr Chande, if courts and especially the commercial division are to meet the expectations and needs of the business community and meaningfully contribute to private sector growth, it must be able to determine disputes without resorting to devious, time consuming, complex or costly procedures.

The Doing Business Report 2012 shows that Tanzania has dropped in its ranking in the area of enforcing contracts, from 33rd position in 2011 to 36th place this year out of 183 economies around the World.

"The fact that Tanzania has dropped in the ranking is not good news, however, being ranked 36 out of 183 economies is something that we must appreciate and strive to elevate," said the Chief Justice.

Judicial experts met on Friday in Dar es Salaam to discuss, among other things, ways of curbing delays in commercial dispute resolution.

The roundtable discussion aimed to identify specific causes of delays and suggest appropriate solutions, including recourse to arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism to litigation.

According to Mr Chande among the ways to curb delays was adoption of standard operating procedures.

"These could incorporate agreed time schedules for the disposal of individual cases, an active role for judges with respect to case management, limitation in the adjournment of court hearings expedited disclosure by the parties and recourse to alternative dispute resolution mechanism," he said.

For his part, the Judge-in-Charge of Commercial Division Justice Robert Makaramba said that arbitration was yet another viable method of commercial dispute resolution that could provide a reliable, flexible and quick resolution of commercial disputes.

"One of its main attractions is the ability of parties to resolve disputes privately without the intervention of courts," said Justice Makaramba.

Mr. Beatus Malima, a lecturer at University of Dar es Salaam, School of Law said that the rules of the code of civil procedure, evidence, limitation and others of the same ilk, naturally lead to delays of settlement of disputes.

Source: The Citizen (http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/business/13-local-business/24257-judiciary-to-tackle-red-tape ), Monday, 23 July 2012 09:48.