Courts start annual vacation

This means that the affected courts will close and only attend to cases of criminal nature. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • The court vacation system was inherited from the colonial judges, who used to travel back to United Kingdom (UK) to visit their families.
  • But in the recent past, Ugandan judicial officers are using the same vacation to do their chamber’s work such as writing pending court rulings and judgments, among other judicial activities.

KAMPALA. The annual court vacation started on Sunday and will go on for the next one month.

The vacation, which ends on August 15, will affect only cases that are civil in nature and not those of criminal nature before the High Court and Magistrates’ courts.

The Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court will begin its vacation on July 30 and will go on until the end of August.

This means that the affected courts will close and only attend to cases of criminal nature. However, it’s only in emergency situations that court can sit and hear a civil matter. Such emergency cases include land and house eviction threats affecting a big population.

“The court vacation is on and during this period, the courts will not hear cases that are civil in nature but only those that are criminal nature. Despite us being in court vacation, litigants are called upon to continue filing their cases even those of civil nature and will be heard at a later date,” Acting Chief Registrar, Mr Isaac Muwata briefly told this reporter.

The court vacation system was inherited from the colonial judges, who used to travel back to United Kingdom (UK) to visit their families.

But in the recent past, Ugandan judicial officers are using the same vacation to do their chamber’s work such as writing pending court rulings and judgments, among other judicial activities.