Members of judiciary challenged to make justice accessible to all

Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika has challenged members of the judiciary to make “justice accessible to all in a timely, cost effective and efficient manner”.
“In 2020, the judiciary underwent a number of significant reforms in its resolve to make justice accessible to all in a timely cost effective and efficient manner,” he said.
“At the 2020 Legal Year opening, I informed judges, magistrates, lawyers and those in attendance that I would attend to the age-old problem of reserved judgments and the back log of cases on the court lists, some as old as nine years.”
He said to reduce the backlog of cases, steps were implemented in 2020.
“We changed the bi-monthly Supreme Court sittings to monthly sittings. This was successfully implemented last year and the result was very promising in that more Supreme Court cases were dealt with.
“We are trying to do the same in the National Court. Our focus and challenge is to dispose of more cases in the National Court than we are now currently disposing.
“I want the judges to seriously and ungrudgingly commit to this goal.
“Judges need to dispose of more cases by hearing the evidence and writing the decisions soon after hearing the trials.”
He said adjournments must be minimised and decisions must be delivered within three months of the trial.
He thanked the lawyers who have been assisting judges in completing cases through mediation and court-driven settlements.