Why Justice Choudry remains a hot item

By John Masaba and Brian Mayanja

The Judicial Service Commission cannot fire embattled High Court Judge Anup Singh Choudry.

The secretary to the Judicial Service Commission, Kagoole Kivumbi, told Saturday Vision that, like any other Ugandans, they await the action of the Attorney General on Justice Choudry.

“When we receive a petition, we scrutinise it to see if it merits consideration. The petition on Choudry’s conduct merited consideration. We wrote to the Attorney General. Next thing is for the tribunal to conduct a trial,” he said.

Choudry’s appointment to the bench in 2008 kicked up a lot of dust and continues to be a point of contention.

The recent sh37b award in damages against two city lawyers only adds fuel to the controversy.

Justice Choudry said James Nangwala and Alex Rezida, should pay the hefty damages to the tenants for misadvising a government entity (Uganda Investment Authority) to purchase land that had encumbrances. The lawyers, he ruled, could not appeal against the ruling unless they first deposited the full sum in court.

The Uganda Law Society (ULS), in a statement early this week, insinuated that the judge could have singled out the two lawyers because of their involvement in a case against him.

The two were hired by the ULS to pursue the petition against Choudry’s appointment.

Who is Justice Choudry?

Justice Choudry, 63, is a Ugandan of Asian origin who was resident in the UK before he was appointed to the High Court of Uganda on May 2, 2008.

Born in Masaka, Justice Choudry went to schools in Uganda for his early education before moving to the UK where he acquired a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of London.

He later studied law at the Corpus Christi College at the University of Cambridge and the College of Law at Chester and Guildford.

Justice Choudry’s mother, Narinder Kaur, was also born in Uganda and his grandparents migrated to Uganda from Rawalpindi in India in the early nineteenth century, according to the Sikh Network website.

His grandfather came to Uganda in the early 1900s and served in the civil service.

His father also worked in the civil service in Uganda until his retirement shortly before 1972, when president Idi Amin expelled Asians from the country.

He is the only judge in the High Court who does not wear a wig because his Sikh religion requires him not to cut his hair and to cover it with a white turban.

Controversial sentence

The Uganda Law Society says Choudry has no grounding in the legal practice of Uganda.

“He cannot be a Ugandan Judge, when he was fired from the UK over integrity issues,” said Yusuf Nsibambi of Nsibambi Advocates. “Integrity matters a lot in practising law.”

Lawyer Sam Njuba also told New Vision online that: “If a doctor is disqualified from England, he cannot continue practising his career in Ugandan, since our laws originate from England. If you appoint Choudry as a Judge, it means Uganda does not consider integrity.”

Another city lawyer, Fred Mukasa Mbidde, a member of ULS, says Justice Choudry should not have been allowed to practice law in Uganda because he lacks experience on how things are done in Uganda.

He cited a recent ruling presided over by Justice Choudry, where he ruled that an infant had the legal competence to sue.

“Senior counsel John Mary Mugisha lost a case because of fraudulent proceedings of judicial procedures. In law, an infant can sue through next of friend,” Mbidde said.

How Choudry ended up as High Court judge

According to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) rules, the JSC has an elaborate system that vets candidates before they are short-listed.

The short-listed names are then put in the commission’s data bank.

When a shortage of judges arises, the commission selects applicants from the data bank. They are then invited to interact with senior members of the commission.

The commission scrutinises the records of the applicants and eligible judges are selected, after which the names are sent to the President for appointment.

The President vets the listed applicants and forwards them to the Appointments Committee of Parliament.

It is Parliament that either rejects or accepts the President’s appointment of judges.

The former Secretary of the Judicial Service Commission, John Muhanguzi Kashaka, said: “Justice Choudry was first nominated as a High Court judge in 2004.

His name stayed in the Judicial Service data bank since there was no vacancy in the category he had applied for, as a commercial court judge.

“I am sure the commission vetted him properly,” he told The Independent magazine last year.