The High Court of Malawi is expected to deliver a ruling this month in the thin plastics case in which the State is challenging the judicial review order granted to 11 plastic manufacturers.
Sitting in Lilongwe on November 25 2024, High Court Judge Howard Pemba heard the State’s application to vacate the granting of permission for the 11 plastic manufacturers to apply for judicial review of the constitutionality of the Environmental Management (Plastics) Regulations of 2014.
Former attorney generals Kalekeni Kaphale and Chikosa Silungwe represented the State while private practice lawyer Wapona Kita represented the plastic manufacturers.
Pemba reserved his ruling on the State’s application to dismiss the judicial review to within 21 days from the date of the hearing.
This means that the judge is expected to deliver his ruling on or before December 24 2025.
In an interview yesterday, Kaphale said the state challenged the granting of leave for judicial review because it believes that commencement of the case was an abuse of the process of the court.
He said: “The regulations that manufacturers are challenging happened nine years ago and yet the time limit for applying judicial review is 90 days.
Government first banned manufacturing, distribution, sale, exportation and importation of thin plastic bags of less than 60 microns in 2015.
