The Chief Justice on January 25, 2018 closed the 20th Annual Judges Conference with a call to judicial officers to do better than what they did the previous year.
He urged the Judges to take into account the concerns and criticisms of the different stakeholders.
This was after an appeal by the Executive Director of the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), Ms Allen Kagina, to prioritize land matters involving government land projects in a bid to save billions of tax payers’ money that result from unnecessary delays in deciding such cases.
Ms Kagina explained that where there is delayed land adjudication involving government projects coupled with interim orders concerning road projects before the courts of law, then there are far reaching effects on economic and social developments of the country.
“When a contractor has mobilized and two parties go to court especially the land owners, the contractor’s equipment lies idle but he is happy charging government,” Ms Kagina said.
In a bid to improve the administration of justice, the Judges came up with 10 resolutions. These include prioritizing disposal of cases that destabilize societies such as homicides, defilement, commercial cases and land matters.
Sentencing guidelines will be reviewed in order to address any gaps and inconsistencies with the law and the law reporting function will be institutionalized in the Judiciary through the issuance of a Practice Direction from the Chief Justice.
Others are; institutionalizing the law reporting function, all newly appointed High Court judges to be immediately inducted and duly deployed,courts to prepare and submit their costed work plans with specific timelines to the committee, courts to agree on the standards to apply during court proceedings and devise a policy on appointment of advocates on state briefs.
They also agreed that judicial officers will fast-track cases of the marginalized groups, the Judiciary will prepare and avail court users’ guides in simple English and all ICT reforms will include training and orientation of all the human resource and other stake holders.
The week-long Conference was running under the theme; “An Inclusive Judiciary for Sustainable Development.”
