Head of the Constitutional Court Steven Kavuma. Courtesy photo.
The Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal started their month-long annual court vacation which will run up to August 31 2017.
During this period the justices of the Supreme Court will use the vacation to write judgments of the 47 cases awaiting ruling while their counterparts in the Court of Appeal will use the time to write pending judgments arising from election petitions.
According to the deputy Chief Justice and head of the Court of Appeal Justice Steven Kavuma, there are 51 election petitions pending judgment at the court.
“We are going to use the vacation to write and deliver judgments on the election appeals arising from last year’s general elections,” he said.
However, the registries of the court remain open for the registration of cases.
Judiciary spokesperson Vincent Mugabo, said during the vacation, judicial officers concentrate mainly on desk work like judgment writing, weeding out inactive cases from the system, review of the work in the previous period and planning for the next period.
Tom Chemutai, the Registrar of the Supreme Court, said while the courts will not handle any civil cases during the period, the registries of the two courts will continue to receive and file cases.
However, he adds that when urgent cases come up, applicants apply for a “certificate of urgency” stating why the matter needs to be disposed of.
“When the Certificate of Urgency is granted, the case can be handled as an exception,” Chemutai said.
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