Supreme Court reserves ruling in thin plastics case

The Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal has reserved its ruling on a Golden Plastic Limited application for stay of enforcement of the same court’s decision that upheld government’s ban on thin plastics.

The company, through its lawyer Madalo Banda, among others, argued in court on Wednesday before Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Lovemore Chikopa in Blantyre that regulations which then minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mines established were not in line with Section 58 of the Republican Constitution.

She argued that the section states that when making subsidiary legislation, it must be laid before the Parliament, but in this case, it was not, a development that makes the regulation void.

Banda further argued that Section 58 (2) of the Constitution states that subsidiary legislations that aim to affect the significant fundamental rights cannot be delegated to another entity such as the minister.

“We believe that the regulation significantly affects rights in the Constitution. Therefore, the minister should never have even [been] given the power to make such wide regulation in the first place,” she said.

But in his submission, Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda asked the court to dismiss the application on the grounds that some of the documents currently used in court were filed by a lawyer who was suspended by the Malawi Law Society for professional misconduct.

“There was no valid appeal that will anchor the stay that was granted,” Chakaka Nyirenda said.

After hearing both the State and applicant’s arguments, Justice Chikopa reserved the ruling to a date to be communicated later.

Golden Plastics is protesting the manner in which the government gazetted the plastics regulations of 2015, challenging the criteria for determining exempted plastics and highlighting economic consequences that they will suffer because of the ban.