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JUSTICE delayed is justice denied, so goes the old adage coined by one politician, William Gladstone.
This is a legal maxim meaning that if a legal redress is not carried right away, then even if it is carried out later, it is not really justice.
In the past few years, our courts have been under fire over failure to conclude cases on time and various reasons have been proffered drawing the ire of the accused and other interested parties.
Only on Monday, the issue of increased backlog of cases resurfaced when Bulawayo High Court Judge, Justice Maxwell Takuva, attacked the magistrates’ courts for failing to try criminal cases within reasonable time and coming up with absurd sentences.
Justice Takuva, who was officially opening the 2014 Legal Year for the Gweru Circuit, also took to task the magistrates for gaining the notoriety of passing custodial sentences on people who commit petty crimes of assault or theft.
Justice Takuva said delays in bringing accused persons to trial in certain instances were disrupting the life of the person, if eventually found not guilty.
He said in some cases, delays were caused by administrative inertia or incompetence.
While we do not condone crime and we whole heartedly loathe criminals, we still believe that one is innocent until proven guilty.
It is against this background that we call on our courts to move with speed and accuracy in clearing cases in our courts.
We find it inhuman to keep the accused in suspense for a long time. In most cases, criminals deserving stiffer sentences have been let off the hook when all the witnesses have either died or cannot be located.
When criminal cases are concluded on time, members of the public will have confidence in the justice delivery system.
Although delays might be tied to the performance of our economy struggling under the weight of the Western imposed sanctions, we still believe something should be done to clear the cases on time.
If the issue has to do with the shortage of staff then the government can employ on temporary basis judges and magistrates on retirement.
We also urge the authorities to take seriously the advice of Justice Takuva that magistrates should conduct monthly checks of criminal record books in order to ensure that outstanding matters do not escape their attention.
The suggestion by Justice Takuva that monthly returns from prisons should be scrutinised to ensure that failure to deal with accused persons’ cases does not go unnoticed is also spot on.
Online Reporter