Earlier on, a court orderly had presented a handwritten document containing the names of people allowed by the judge to access the court room and asked the remaining to leave.
Justice Andrew Bashaija, the head of Civil Division of High Court ejected several people from the court premises this morning for violating the physical distancing guidelines. Dozens of people had turned up at the Twed Tower based court in Kampala to listen to four cases that had been fixed for hearing before various Judges.
They included an application in which, Ntungamo Municipality Member of Parliament, Gerald Karuhanga sued the Parliamentary Commission and Attorney General challenging the procedure leading to the allocation of 10 billion Shillings to various legislators for Covid19 activities and a suit by the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights seeking to compel government to include other districts on the relief food distribution program.
The other was is a suit where lawyers sued government for excluding them from the list of essential service providers and an application by the mainstream Democratic Party leadership challenging members of a rival faction for conducting elections for the party’s top leadership. The matters attracted several people who filled up the court room, which violated the 1.5 meter physical distancing guidelines.
Justice Andrew Bashaija, the head of Civil Division of High Court couldn’t have any of this. He stormed out of his chambers and directed all the people to leave. Earlier on, a court orderly had presented a handwritten document containing the names of people allowed by the judge to access the court room and asked the remaining to leave.
The DP Secretary General Gerald Siranda through his weight behind the judge, saying despite the fact that he would have loved to attend the session but the judge was simply enforcing the Covid19 prevention guidelines.
However, Isaac Maddo, an activist wasn’t happy with the Judge’s decision, saying the matters before court were on public interest.
On March 19, the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe directed courts to only attend to urgent matters. He directed courts to only entertain parties to the suit and their lawyers.
He directed the suspension of cases requiring witnesses until the lock down is lifted.
He also said where possible the parties should file written submissions to avoid physical contact because of the Covid19 pandemic.
Kukunda Judith
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