Court stops Mepa on ban of thin plastics
The High Court of Malawi in Lilongwe has granted an order to 11 plastic manufacturers stopping Malawi Environment Protection Authority (Mepa) from enforcing a ban on single-use thin plastics.
In the order made on July 9 2024, Judge Simeon Mdeza has given the claimants permission to apply for judicial review challenging the constitutionality and legality of the Environmental Management (Plastics) Regulations of 2015.
The judge also ordered that the matter should be referred to the Chief Justice for certification as a constitutional matter.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change is the first defendant in the matter while the Attorney General (AG) is the second defendant.
In submissions dated June 25 and filed by lawyer Wapona Kita, the claimants argue that the plastics regulations, before being introduced, were supposed to be laid before Parliament.
On judicial review, the applicants noted that they were supposed to apply within three months after the ban was introduced, but this was delayed by nine years because of discussions related to the ban and other court cases on the same.
Reads the submission: “Now that those proceedings have been concluded to finality, albeit without deciding on the constitutionality issues being raised by the claimants in these proceedings, it is only right and proper for the court to extend the period for them to apply for judicial review.”
The companies which have obtained the injunction are City Plastics Industry, Flexo Pack Ltd, G. Plastics Wholesale and Retail, G.S Plastic Industry, Jagot Plastics Ltd, O.G Plastics Industries (2008) Ltd, Plastimax Ltd, Polypack Ltd, Qingdao Recycling Ltd, Sharma Industries and Shore Rubber (Lilongwe) Ltd.
The order comes after another plastic manufacturer, Golden Plastics Limited, withdrew its appeal filed in the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal against enforcement of the ban on single-use thin plastics.
The case started in 2021 when the High Court in Lilongwe vacated an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the ban against manufacturing, distribution, sale, exportation and importation of thin plastic bags of less than 60 microns.
In July 2021, Golden Plastics Limited obtained a stay order that restrained Mepa from implementing the ban.
However, Mepa applied to have the stay order vacated, but hearing of the application was adjourned several times until April this year when the case resumed.
That time, Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda dismissed an application by Golden Plastics to extend the order when parties to the case appeared before him
