Uganda

Abstract

An interesting question which came before the Court of Appeal for East Mrica for decision during 1969 was that of the construction which should be placed on Article 89 of the Constitution.1 Section 1 of the Article states that appeal from certain decisions of the High Court lies to the "Court of Appeal" Section 5 states that "Parliament may provide that the Chief Justice may be a member of the Court of Appeal established under this Article" and Section 6 states that "the Court of Appeal" means "such court of appeal as may be established by Parliament and until such court of appeal is established it means the Court of Appeal for Eastern Mrica". An application for leave to file a record of appeal out of time had been brought before a judge of the High Court in his ex officio capacity as a judge of the Court of Appeal for East Mrica, for the Court of Appeal for Eastern Mrica Act, 1962 provides that the Chief Justice and the other judges ofthe High Courts of the Partner States are ex officio members of the Court of Appeal. The judge, however, dismissed the application for want of jurisdiction, holding that Article 89(5) was "indicative of the fact that the puisne judges of the High Court of Uganda are no longer ex officio members of the Court of Appeal for East Africa". Reference was accordingly made to the full court and here it was held that Article 89(5) applied only to a Court of Appeal to be established by Parliament and not to the existing Court of Appeal for East Africa and was not indicative of the fact that the High Court judges were no longer ex officio judges of the Court of Appeal for East Africa and that these judges remained ex officio judges of the higher court. It was, however, added that it was "greatly to be regretted that the provisions of the Constitution and legislation of Uganda in relation to the jurisdiction and membership of the highest and final Court of Appeal for Uganda should be couched in such ambiguous and in some respects contradictory language" and it was suggested "that these provisions be urgently re-examined with a view to their clarification".