Judiciary first quarter case backlog at 1 498

Hundreds of Malawians are failing to access timely justice in the country’s courts due to a case backlog standing at 1 498 nationwide, according to data from the High Court of Malawi registries.
The Judiciary, which according to Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda needs about K8 billion annually to effectively operate, has attributed the situation to a shortage of judges and adequate funding
However, in the current 2014/15 financial year that ends on June 30, the Judiciary was allocated funds in the range of K3 billion to K4 billion.

In an interview yesterday, Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula said 1 149 cases (both civil and criminal) were registered at the High Court of Malawi’s Blantyre registry in the first quarter of 2015 out of which 408 were completed and 741 are pending.
He said during the same period, 542 cases were registered at the Lilongwe district registry where 176 were completed while 366 are on pending. On the other hand, according to Mvula, the Zomba registry recorded 296 cases in the first quarter and completed 18 cases with 278 pending.
In Mzuzu, Mvula said, 139 cases were registered in the first quarter and only 26 were completed, leaving 113 pending.
The High Court’s Commercial Division, according to Mvula, registered 68 cases over the same period out of which 21 were concluded and 47 are pending in Blantyre while the division’s Lilongwe registry had 40 cases registered but managed 14, leaving 26 on pending list.
To check the situation in Mzuzu where Dingiswayo Madise is the sole High Court judge, Mvula said the Judiciary is from next week deploying a visiting judge from Lilongwe to work on the backlog.
Two weeks ago, Malawi Law Society (MLS) Mzuzu Chapter president Victor Gondwe and his team petitioned the Chief Justice demanding an additional judge for Mzuzu to facilitate justice delivery.
Nyirenda promised to look into cries of shortage of judges and delay in delivery of justice in the North by having visiting judges.
Mvula on Tuesday said Judiciary is committed to fast-track justice delivery challenges in the North, hence the arrangement to have visiting judges.
Reacting to the Mzuzu arrangement, MSL president John Suzi-Banda said MLS was convinced with efforts by the Chief Justice to address the problem in the Northern Region and hoped Nyirenda will keep his commitment.
Shortage of judges has been a major cry for court users as cases take long to be concluded.
The Mzuzu registry—currently with one judge—has a catchment area of 1.7 million people while the court’s Lilongwe registry has seven judges serving a population of 5.5 million in the Central Region and Blantyre (12 judges) and Zomba (two judges) have a Southern Region population of over 5.8 million.
The Judiciary is also on record as having said that it currently has four or five vacancies for judges although the country needs between 10 and 20 more for effective delivery of justice.
Currently, the country has 22 High Court judges and Nyirenda said the challenge was that the establishment limits the number of High Court judges to 30.