Court grants Monitor more time in appeal against PS Bigirimana

The Court of Appeal yesterday granted prayers by Monitor Publications Limited (MPL), the publisher of the Daily Monitor newspaper, for an extension of the period for it to file written submissions in its appeal against a High Court decision in favour of Mr Pius Bigirimana, the Judiciary’s permanent secretary.
 Justice Musa Sekaana, who heads the Civil Division of the High Court, on December 10, 2021, decided a defamation suit filed by Mr Bigirimana against the paper in his favour, and ordered the publication to pay the PS Shs450m in both general and punitive damages.

Appeal
 Dissatisfied, MPL appealed the decision in the Court of Appeal. After months of waiting, the registrar of the Court of Appeal on May 30, 2022, notified the appellants that a coram of three judges was set to hear the case, and asked the appellants’ lawyers to file written submissions within a day whereas the respondent was given five days.

 The judges are Elizabeth Musoke, Muzamil Kibedi and Christopher Gashirabake.
 Monitor’s external lawyer and lead counsel in the case, Mr James Nangwala, argued that it was impractical to comply with the directions in the limited time that court gave the appellants who, unlike the respondent who was assigned more time, have a higher burden to prosecute the appeal.

 “There has been a rush in the proceedings before the appeal came up for hearing. On May 30, 2022, we received a notification from the registrar that we were supposed to file submissions in one day, while the respondent was given five days. Practically, we could not comply with this and he gave us an extension of five days which we could not again comply with given the very bulky record of appeal,” Mr Nangwala said.
 
Monitor’s position
 Mr Nangwala also said the known procedures of scheduling conference before the registrar, including mediation, were all ignored and wondered why the rush when he has several other pending appeals that have spent years in the court without being heard.
 However, Mr Godfrey Himbaza, the lead lawyer for Mr Bigirimana, protested the pleas.
 The judges overruled the objections, setting September 15, 2022 as the new date for Monitor to file its written submissions.  

 The court gave Mr Bigirimana’s team up to September 22, 2022 to file a reply and September 30, 2022 for the appellants to file a rejoinder.
 Unlike Monitor’s prayers for an open hearing of the appeal to be covered by the media, the justices decided that there will be no oral submissions, and that they will determine the appeal on notice based on only written filings.

We protested against the manner in which court hurriedly issued directions that were unfavourable to the appellants yet they had a bigger/heavier burden to prosecute the appeal compared to the Respondent who had been given more time. 
Meanwhile, the application for stay of execution of the judgment of the High Court in C.S.NO.612/2017 was fixed for hearing on August 16, 2022 before Justice Musa Sekaana.

NEW COURT DIRECTIONS ON APPEAL
•      Appellants file and serve substantive legal arguments/submissions by September 15, 2022.
•      Respondent files and serves his substantive legal arguments in reply by September 22, 2022.
•      Appellants file and serve a rejoinder, if any, by September 30, 2022.
•      Judgement will be on notice.