Chinese woman petitions judiciary over alleged rejection of her court documents

A litigant has petitioned Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera, accusing staff at the Court of Appeal of indiscipline after they allegedly refused to receive her court documents.

In a November 21 petition, Ms Miao Hua Xian, the former chairperson of the Chinese Association in Uganda, claims when she attempted to file an application in a matter she is battling against Namaganda Ltd, a registrar of the court refused to receive her documents.

The petition briefly shows that there is a property row between Ms Miao and Namaganda Ltd, with the former seeking to secure a temporary injunction from the Court of Appeal in a bid to save her property from being grabbed by the latter.

“…The attendants of the registry accordingly referred my lawyers to ... the registrar Court of Appeal, for administrative measures and approval of receipt of the documents,” the petition reads in part.

“Surprisingly, I’m informed the registrar also refused to authorise receipt of my application on similar grounds of existence of an application of stay of execution,” Ms Miao’s petition adds. She further alleges that the registrar also threatened to delete his case from the online filing system. “My worry is how these officers decide which cases are to be received the court and which ones should be rejected. What shocked me more is that when my lawyer asked whether the application had been uploaded on ECMIS, my lawyer answered in affirmative, and the registrar threatened to delete it from the system,” Ms Miao said.

The Deputy Chief Justice heads the Court of Appeal/ Constitutional Court. “I respectfully request your good office to investigate this matter and authorise receipt of the applications to enable me to be accorded a right to a fair hearing...,” she says. She also appealed to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to inquire into the “conduct of the Registrar of the Court of Appeal for tainting the image of the Judiciary.”

When contacted, Mr James Ereemye Mawanda, the public relations officer of the Judiciary, said he wouldn’t know why the registrar of the court would refuse to receive documents of a litigant. “I wouldn’t know since the documents are not before me, but the administrator of that court is Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire,” Mr Ereemye said at the weekend.

“I want to imagine that since she has written to the higher authority, she would be responded to but there are many reasons why a registrar may refuse to receive documents,” he added. We were unable to talk to the said registrar.