JCC composition okay, but …

Wed, 24 Jan 2018 11:52:50 +0000

By BENNIE MUNDANDO

 THERE is nothing wrong with the composition of the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC) but an inclusion of the Chief Justice as an ex-official would enhance it further because that office is the pinnacle of the judicial system, lawyer Hobday Kabwe has observed.

Commenting on suggestions that appointments to the JCC should exclusively be reserved for former judges, Mr. Kabwe said doing so would be suicidal as the same former judges may be in close association with some of the people they  would be facing, thereby bringing impartiality into question.  He said while there was nothing wrong with having a mix of former and serving judges to sit on the JCC, leaving such a sensitive institution exclusively in the hands of former judges may be going to extremes as the opposite of the basis of such an argument may also be true.

He noted that while proponents of the exclusive appointment of former judges to the JCC had valid arguments, it was also important to look at the issue from a broader perspective and weigh the options so that a better decision that will not compromise on service delivery would be arrived at.

“For me, the current composition of the JCC is just ok.  Perhaps what needs to be done is to include the Chief Justice because that office remains the pinnacle of the judiciary in the sense of the Supreme Court and so, we can have him or her to sit on the commission as an ex-official.  But I don’t agree with this notion that the commission must be exclusively presided over by retired judges as that will be going to extremes.

“What we need to enhance is impartiality and I don’t see impartiality being meted when and if former judges exclusively sit on the commission because we cannot rule out the possibility of close association. If former judges are close allies of the judge whose case must be heard, impartiality is automatically compromised and that becomes a problem,” Mr. Kabwe said. He further said there was nothing wrong with appointing senior legal practitioners who had never been judges as long as it was established that such individuals would execute their duty with impartiality. 

“We also need senior legal luminaries who may not be judges but are capable of acting without impartiality. For example, we have Professor Mvunga who is one of the legal practitioners whom you cannot even doubt yet he has never been a judge and I believe these are the people we need to enhance our representative capacity.

“The inclusion of former judges, the Chief Justice, senior practicing legal practitioners who may not be judges, and serving judges would be a great mix in enhancing representation. The JCC must be in the hands of people with a distant connection to the bench. At least there should be that semblance but I must insist, there is nothing wrong with the current composition of the JCC,” he said.