Employment of 300 magistrates underway - JK

President Jakaya Kikwete has said that the government plans to employ 300 magistrates soon to speed up delivery of justice in the country.

He said the relevant authorities are now finalising the necessary permits.

The President made the remarks in Dar es Salaam yesterday during the commemoration of the Law Day whose theme was: “Timely delivery of justice for all”.

He said currently there are 672 magistrates working in different courts in the country.

According to the President, in order to ensure that justice is efficiently delivered, all legal stakeholders including the government, the court and advocates should be positively involved in the process.

He noted that for justice to bring meaning its delivery should be timely.

He said advocates were also to blame for contributing to the delay of judgments in courts by unnecessary requests for adjournment of cases due to their tight timetables.

“Most advocates have been requesting for adjournment of their cases due to tight schedule because they have a number of clients to defend, thus leading to the delays in granting justice,” he pointed out. 

He said the introduction of the Judiciary Fund has helped the courts to be more independent in implementing some of their activities.

Meanwhile the Tanganyika Law Society has said that poor use of information technology, language barrier and unnecessary adjournment of cases in courts are among the factors contributing to the delay of justice in the country.

TLS President Francis Stolla said most judges and magistrates in the country are still relying on the use of hard copy materials in their daily operation in courts thus spending much time when they do legal research for judgement of cases.

Stolla said that it would make judgement easier if case files are kept in computerised systems making it is simple for a judge or magistrate to go for a legal research and prepare the judgement in a short time compared to the current system where he/she is supposed to go through all the case files in hard copy.

He also pointed out that over-emphasis on legal technicalities was one of the factors contributing to delays of people’s justice in the courts.

He said as the court begins its new year, the theme: "Justice for All” should be put into practice to make sure that it will be for all and for the development of the country.

He proposed that the government to take urgent measures such as appointment of acting Judges, invest more in the use of information technology, organise training for court staff to make them cope with the changing world of technology and performance and unification of advocates in order to enhance justice for all in the country.

For his part Chief Justice Othman Chande said timely delivery of justice contributes to the strengthening of peace as most people will have trust in their justice dispensing institutions.

He said all systems of justice in the world face delays caused by the “inherent delay” but this should not be allowed to for unnecessary reasons, he added, quoting William Goldstone who said: “Justice delayed is justice denied”.

The Chief justice said that the court has built capacity for its staff and by last year had the ability to finish all petitions filed at the court by 102 per cent.

He said of the 870 cases filed at the Court of Appeal last year 865 were concluded, equivalent to 99.4 per cent. 

According to him out of 5,844 cases registered at regional and district courts 6,211 cases, equivalent to 106 per cent, were concluded while primary courts registered 20,113 cases and finalised 19,840 of them, equivalent to 97 per cent.

Meanwhile an acute shortage of judges has been cited as among the causes of delays in finalising cases, the High Court Judge In-charge of Dodoma Zone, Crecencia Makuru, has said.

According to her, the number of cases registered in the region was higher than the number of judges handling them.

Justice Makuru said the region has only two judges and yet at least 1,364 cases were registered by December 31, 2013.

The judge was speaking here yesterday during the Law Day cerebrations held at the High Court grounds on the regional level.

Apart from the shortage of judges she said the number of magistrates is equally small in comparison to the number of cases registered.

According to her, most district courts have only a single magistrate.

She said once the judge is sick or goes on an annual leave it means the cases are not processed.

At least district courts have a magistrate each, but primary courts do not have permanent magistrates. Instead, she said, their magistrates come from other courts.

She said the magistrates are forced to travel long distances to help primary courts, but due to bad weather and poor infrastructure, they fail to work in primary courts. This causes delays in handling the cases and their judgement, she said.

The judge recommended that the number of both judges and magistrates be increased so as to hasten the handling of cases.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN