Judges asked to prioritize children's cases
Jan 28, 2020
Butera, a former Director of Public Prosecutions and currently justice of Supreme Court, said ignoring vulnerable litigants was a travesty of justice.
KAMPALA - Justice Richard Butera has asked judicial officers to priotize cases involving vulnerable people such as the elderly, pregnant women and children.
During the ongoing 22nd annual edition of the judges' conference earlier today, Butera, a former Director of Public Prosecutions and currently justice of Supreme Court, said ignoring vulnerable litigants was a travesty of justice.
Held under the theme, Discharging the mandate of the judiciary: Towards a more professional and effective Judiciary, the conference is being used as a platform to appraise the Judiciary, reflect upon the challenges and propose solutions.
The conference is being graced by Judiciary's top echelon led by Chief Justice Bart Katurebe, his deputy Owiny-Dollo, justices of courts of judicature, registrars and representatives of the European Union.
"We need to strike a balancing act not to concentrate only on big cases. How do you reject handling a case of an elderly man or woman well knowing that he/she might die before he/she receives justice?" Butera said.
He said sometimes, the importance of a case, is not in the value in monetary terms involved.
"Our people kill chicken and matooke thieves but they do not hurt those stealing huge sums of public funds. If you fail to handle cases of matooke thieves in an area where bananas are grown, you will be making a very big mistake," Butera said.
Butera made the remarks while suggesting changes that need to be made to improve service delivery by the Judiciary.
Meanwhile, Katurebe mooted the idea of increasing the pecuniary jurisdiction of Magistrates Courts to help lighten the load on High Court.
If the aforesaid policy shift is sanctioned, Katurebe said, more cases will be handled by Magistrate Courts, which will in a way reduce case backlog.
Data by Judiciary indicates that there are over 100,000 pending cases in courts.