It has been difficult to ignore the noise coming from the banking sector and by extension, the Judiciary.
What has largely been a shadowy court that is less known to the public, seems to have all of a sudden invited a lot of attention due to some hair raising decisions taken inside the Nakasero-based court.
Beyond the decisions, is the amount of money that is locked up in the Commercial Division of the High Court with some cases taking years before they are heard or disposed of.
It is shocking. Isn’t it? That a case can be locked up in court for more than 15 years. Well, this seems not to be unique to the Commercial Court, it is a challenge to the entire court system and a serious danger to the larger economy.
Why should a case that involves huge sums of money, sometimes borrowed through banks, take a decade to be deposed of?
Well, this might be a subject for another day, but sifting through records at one of the realms of justice – the Commercial Court – one cannot ignore the growing crisis that rotates around cases filed for or against commercial banks.
Therefore, today we shall focus our attention on this area, looking at the amounts involved and the laissez-faire attitude with which cases are handled.
The dilemma
The principle of the judicial system dictates that once a dispute has been taken to court, there shall be no action until it is disposed of.
Essentially, this ties the hands of any party involved but of course relieves another while hurting the other.
It is understandable that most of the cases that involve banks are filed to challenge a fore closure after a dispute that often rotates around a borrower who has failed to meet their end of the bargain to repay a loan.Therefore, as a result, billions of shillings, much of which is borrowed money, especially, from banks is tied up in the legal system.A 2020 report by Francis Gimara, the former president of Uganda Law Society, indicates that more than Shs5 trillion is locked up in commercial disputes with some cases taking as long as 15 years before they are disposed of.The report notes that on average, the Commercial Court receives about 2,000 cases annually, with only half of these going up to disposal.According to the 2013 annual report, the Commercial Court Division, received 2,417 of which 1,747 were disposed of.The bulk of these […]
