Courts start annual month-long vacation

The one-month court vacation for the High Court and magistrates’ courts has started across the country. 
According to a press statement released by the Judiciary on Friday, the court vacation started on Saturday but since Saturday is not a working day, it was pushed to commence today until August 15.

In this period, cases of civil nature are not heard. However, those of criminal nature continue to be heard.
“This is to inform court users that court vacation for the High Court and magistrates’ courts will commence on July 15 and end on August 15,” reads in part the Judiciary statement signed off by Mr Jameson Karemani, the Public Relations Officer.

“During this period, courts handling criminal cases will continue operating normally because the vacation does not apply to this category of cases,” the Judiciary statement further read.

Meanwhile, the Judiciary said the court vacation for appellate courts (Court of Appeal and Supreme Court) will start on August 1 until end of the month.

The court vacation is mandatory and is provided for by the Judicature Act (Court Vacation) Rules S1 13-20.
This is a period between the end of one term of court and the beginning of another, specifically for civil cases.

This period is utilised by judicial officers to write judgments and rulings.
Also in this period, only urgent civil matters will be heard upon parties applying to court to first acquire a certificate of urgency before court can sit and hear such a matter.

Such urgent matters include land evictions that are affecting many people.
Mr Karemani said all court registries will be open during this period to facilitate the continuous filing of new cases.

In Uganda, there are two mandatory court vacations for every court annually and they are part and parcel of the judicial calendar – a Civil Vacation between July and August every year and a general vacation between December and January.