The Judiciary on Friday, 27th September, 2024 conducted a ceremony marking the commencement of the 2024/2025 judicial year.
In his keynote address, the Honourable the Chief Justice Rizine Robert Mzikamanda SC, highlighted the Judiciary’s successes and challenges during the 2023/2024 judicial year, and he outlined the plans for the new judicial year.
On the successes, the Honourable the Chief Justice first said that the Judiciary and Malawi Law Society (MLS) on 20th October, 2023 jointly held a workshop under the theme, “Towards Improved Administration of Justice.” He also said that the Judiciary in August, 2024 successfully held a conference on the Malawi Civic Space aimed at enhancing and transforming the administration of justice in Malawi.
He added that the Judiciary has finalized work on the Judiciary Sexual Harassment Policy and Judiciary Service Charter, which will be launched before the end of the year, and the Judiciary has in the year 2023/2024 maintained the production of annual reports. In order to enhance accountability, the Honourable the Chief Justice told the gathering that future annual reports will contain individualized case statistics for each judge in the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal.
The implementation of innovative ways of reducing case backlog and case delays is also one of the successes, said the Chief Justice, adding that judicial officers have expressed commitment to case management, and the expression used is that there will be no more adjournment of cases willy nilly. He also warned that orders of injunction will only be granted on without notice basis in very exceptional circumstances emphasizing in the process that with-notice applications will be the norm in the new year.
The Honourable the Chief Justice further said that there has been some success in the digitalization of the Judiciary in the year 2023/2024. He cited the launch of the e-court on 24th August, 2024 aimed at increasing access to justice and cutting costs for those earning little. He said e-court includes video conferencing and virtual hearings. The Honourable the Chief Justice appealed to both the Bench and the Bar to embrace the use of technology as is being done by other judiciaries in the region, notably, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya.
Apart from the above, the Chief Justice further said that the Judiciary Complaints Management Committee and the Judiciary Institutional Integrity Committee have performed exceedingly well in the year gone by such that the Judiciary Complaints Management Committee was ranked fourth by the external authorities. According to the Chief Justice, these named committees have worked to restore public confidence and trust in the administration of justice.
Other areas of success which the Honourable the Chief Justice highlighted include the establishment of the Judiciary Committee on Elections, and finalization of the rules on court fees. The committee on elections is expected to compute all election cases and facilitate the early disposal of electoral matters. In a related development, he also reported that the Judiciary did well in the area of rules and legal reform. The Honourable the Chief Justice said that the Judiciary prepared proposals on bills and procedural rules on elections in preparation for next year’s tripartite general elections which have since been passed on to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs for its consideration and further processing.
Further to the above successes, the Chief Justice also mentioned the Open Day celebrations in Lilongwe, the Memorandum of Understanding with the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and the swearing in of nine judicial research officers as others. He also said that the Judiciary has continued to conduct mobile courts and camp courts aimed at clearing backlog cases and bringing the courts to the people.
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