Case backlog reduction rising, House informed

Case backlog reduction rising, House informed

Thu Apr 19, 2018

The Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Prof Palamagamba Kabudi , informed the august House yes- terday that the number of settled cases represented 98 per cent of cases lodged during the period under review and 67 per cent of cases which were pending before courts.

Prof Kabudi made the remarks when tabling budget estimates for his ministry and insti- tutions which fall under it for the forthcoming 2018/2019 fiscal year.

The government has through the Judiciary made strides in solving the pending cases at primary, district and resident magistrate courts, the law guru informed the National assembly.

Until March, this year, there were 26,259 cases at district and resident magistrate courts, out of which 5,220 cases were over one year old, which is the Judi- ciary at that level is considered a backlog, representing 19 per cent of all cases, he explained.

In primary courts, of all 16,639 cases as of March this year, only 253 were more than six months old since they were lodged, which at the lower level of the court are considered to be a backlog, representing a mere 1.5 per cent of all cases.

“The good news hails from efforts by judges and magistrates in setting a target of cases to be determined by them in a given period,” he explained. During the period under review, the minister said the National Prosecution Office had filed 17,339 criminal cases out of which 1,166 were filed at the High Court, 2,341 were appeals from the later to the Court of Appeal.

Prof Kabudi explained that the criminal cases related to poaching, drug trafficking, economic sabotage, corruption, murder and violence against people with albinism. “Some of the convicted suspects were imprisoned and others were fined and had their property confiscated.

They were fined a total of 2.5bn/-, and 24 kilogrammes of gold with a value of 2.012bn/- and foreign currencies from 15 nations worth 908.091m/- were confiscated.

“Other properties which were confiscated include five Range Rover Vogue and one Audi which were intercepted at the Dar es Salaam Port disguised as secondhand clothes and a passenger bus which was carrying elephant tusks,” he explained.

The total value of the confiscated property, according to the minister, was at 5.685bn/-.

The minister on the other hand asked the National Assembly to approve 48.9bn/- for the Judiciary Service Commission, the Attorney General Chambers, the Office of the Solicitor Gen- eral and the National Prosecution Office

.Prof Kabudi also re- quested for 11bn/- for his ministry and 5.6bn/- for the Human Rights and Good Governance Commission, as well as 1.9bn/- for the Law Reform Commission and 141.5bn/- for the Judiciary Fund.

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Mr Mohamed Mchengerwa, expressed concerns that some of the executives of the Judiciary Service Commission were notorious for interfering in judgments.

For his part, the Vice- Chairman of the Parliamentary Budget Committee, Mr Jitu Soni, urged the govern- ment to provide adequate funds to improve the work- ing environment in the courts by providing them with tech- nology and infrastructure.

 

Source: Daily News

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