Judicial laws amendment Bill on

Farirai Machivenyika

Senior Reporter 

Parliament has begun considerations of the Judicial Laws Amendment Bill that seeks to provide for virtual court sittings in civil and criminal proceedings and to align various provisions of judicial laws to the Constitution.

The Bill also provides for the establishment of the Office of the Messenger of the Labour Court to enforce judgments.

It seeks to amend the Constitutional Court Act, Supreme Court Act, High Court Act, Administrative Court and Labour Court to provide for virtual court sittings in both civil and criminal proceedings subject to the consent of the parties involved.

Yesterday the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs went through the Bill with the assistance of Mr Phillip Muziri, a consultant from the Southern Africa Parliamentary Support Trust, ahead of public hearings that will be held at a date to be advised.

“The Memorandum of the Bill tells us that one of the things that this Bill seeks to do is to change the way in which proceedings are conducted in our courts in response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Mr Muziri.

He added that the Bill would ensure that justice would be served even during a pandemic or any other disturbances.

Clauses three, four, seven, eight, 10 and 14 provide for changes that will allow virtual sittings for the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, High Court, Administrative Court, Labour Court and the Magistrate Courts.

Since the virtual sittings will only go ahead with the consent of all parties involved, Mr Muziri said this provision would need further scrutiny when the Bill comes for debate to provide for action to be taken if one of the parties does not consent to the virtual sitting.

The introduction of virtual court sittings was as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic which restricted in-person sittings owing to the infectious nature of the disease.

Clause Five of the Bill amend section 13 of the High Court Act to provide that no claim which is ordinarily within the jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Court or any other inferior court or tribunal shall be lodged with the High Court in the first instance.

Clause six amends the High Court Act by allowing the notice published by the Chief Justice to specify the area under the jurisdiction of the specific division of a specialist court to curb the misuse of forum shopping. 

Clause 11 inserts a new sec­tion to the Labour Act which provides for the establishment of the office of the Messenger of the Labour Court to allow it have its own enforcement mechanism.

Currently litigants are forced to register their judg­ments with an appropriate High Court or Magistrates Court. 

To reduce the workload of the High Court Clauses 16 and 17 raises from 12 months to two years, the prison sentence imposed by a Magistrate Court that could be reviewed by the High Court.

Sentences between 12 months and two years will now be reviewed by a Regional Magistrate. 

Clause 19 gives power to the court to release an accused person with hearing impairment on bail or remove such person from remand where the State has failed to secure the services of a sign language interpreter.