CSOs petition Chief Justice over shortage of judges
Some civil society organisations (CSOs) have petitioned Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda to postpone the transfer of High Court judges Dingiswayo Madise and John Chirwa from Mzuzu to Blantyre until the Mzuzu Registry has three resident judges.
The CSOs, including Youth and Society (YAS) and Church and Society of the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia, say justice Dorothy De Gabrielle cannot serve the Northern Region alone.
The petition, dated May 17 2017, signed by YAS executive director Charles Kajoloweka on behalf of other CSOs, comes a week after a Mzuzu resident, Leonard Kabatika Chipeta, took Nyirenda and the Judicial Service Commission to court for transferring Madise and visiting judge Chirwa without replacing them.
Reads the petition in part: “That your intention to replace judges Madise and Chirwa by judge Usiwausiwa [Nyakwawa] has utterly failed as the said judge has turned down the transfer, for whatever reason.”
Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula said the Judiciary is doing everything possible to ensure that people in the Northern Region access justice through the High Court.
“Their concerns are genuine and this is why the Judiciary has sent Honourable Nyakwawa Usiwausiwa to the Mzuzu registry. It is not true that he doesn’t want to go to the North,” he said. n
