By Our Reporter.
Uganda Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny – Dolly has said the enactment of the Administration of the Judiciary Act, 2020, now makes it a requirement that the Judiciary annual performance report is aligned to the financial year than the calendar year.
He said the inaugural report is in line with Section 39 (1) that requires the Chief Justice to publish an annual performance report for every concluded financial year and copies distributed to H.E the President, Speaker and other stakeholders.
The Chief Justice was this month giving the first State of the Judiciary address in which he outlined achievements and challenges in the 2020/2021 financial year with recommendations.
The Judiciary annual performance report notes 49 percent case disposal rate despite disruptions emanating from the Covid-19 pandemic now ravaging the world.
Courts managed to dispose of 156,875 cases out of a caseload of 317,92 which is 20 per cent improvement in case disposal from 130,869 cases disposed of in the financial year 2019/2020.
The report indicates the courts recorded a four percent increase in case registration from 159,543 cases in the financial year 2019/2020 to 165,347 cases in the financial year 2020/2021.”
Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny – Dollo attributed the high case disposal rate to use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as the plea bargaining, mediation and the Small Claims Procedure.
He said use of video conferencing systems to hear cases and the expediting of dormant cases where Judicial officers took advantage of the lockdown to write judgments and deliver them via email , worked well.
According to the Chief Justice video conferencing systems were installed at Commercial Division of the High Court, Arua High Court , Mbarara High Court, Masaka High Court and Masindi High Court.
He said: “ Video conferencing was vital in the handling of cases during Covid-19 lockdown enabling social distancing as judiciary disposed cases online hence reducing case backlog”.
Justice Owiny-Dollo noted backlog of 152,582 cases brought forward from the previous financial year and that the Judiciary was under staffed at 37 percent of the approved staff structure of 2009.
“We expected a total of 378 judicial officers in this financial year serving a population close to 45 million people. But out of 386 grade one magistrate courts, only 126 had magistrates,” he said.
The Chief Justice said a total of 27 chief magistrates were caretaking between two and six chief magistrates courts, with Fort Portal caretaking six magisterial areas as Soroti and Lira were each running five Chief Magisterial areas.
The Judiciary faced transportation challenges as those in lower bench suffered trying to reach the islands of Kalangala, Koome and Buvuma..
The performance report also indicates that the pandemic left a trail of destruction.
Covid – 19 lockdown forced some courts to close and case registrations reduced while some court processes were not served.
The Judiciary performance report reveals that some officers received personal threats relating to management of cases■
