Back to Index
Supreme
Court to decide over law society's constitutional challenge
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
March 28, 2006
http://www1.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=1378&cat=1&livedate=3/28/2006
THE Supreme Court will
in due course decide whether the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) has
a legal right to challenge the constitutionality of some sections
of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, on behalf of its members.
The Constitutional bench led by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku
and comprising Justices Misheck Cheda, Vernanda Ziyambi and Luke
Malaba, confined the hearing to the preliminary point on whether
the legal profession has a legal right to approach the court on
its own as an aggrieved party. The LSZ and Minister of Justice,
Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Cde Patrick Chinamasa are cited
as the applicant and respondent respectively.
The LSZ constitutional
challenge filed last year seeks to invalidate the section, which
allows the courts to detain suspects for up to 21 days without bail.
The court reserved judgment to a later date after hearing arguments
by both counsel for the LSZ and the State. The court proposed to
decide the issue of locus standi (legal right) first.
"Judgment is reserved.
I defer hearing on the merits until a decision is made on issues
of locus standi," said Chief Justice Chidyausiku.
If the court rules in
favour of the LSZ, then the court would proceed to hear the merits
of the case. But if it rules against the society, that would be
the end of the matter.
Arguing for the LSZ,
Mr Sternford Moyo of Scanlen and Holderness, said the law society
was the largest organisation representing lawyers in Zimbabwe. He
said it would be "fallacious" to suggest that LSZ had
no locus standi in the case involving the interests of legal practitioners.
"The applicant has
an obligation to represent the views of the legal profession and
to maintain the integrity and status of the legal profession,"
said Mr Moyo.
"Furthermore it
has a duty to consider and deal with all matters affecting the professional
interests of the legal profession."
Mr Moyo also argued
that the legal profession had interests in the protection of the
fundamental rights of the public and due administration of justice.
He said when the legal profession was disabled from protecting these
rights, its members lose their status as public protectors and custodians
of the law. Mr Moyo said the LSZ had received numerous complaints
and representations from its members urging it to take action and
challenge the statutory provisions, which had a negative impact
on their effectiveness, in the area of their operation. The legal
profession, he said, had a real substantial interest to give it
a legal right to represent its members.
In his counter arguments
Chief Law Officer Mr Nelson Mutsonziwa, urged the court to dismiss
the case for want of locus standi. Mr Mutsonziwa said the LSZ should
not only prove that it had a direct and substantial interest in
the case, but it was a requirement of the law that it demonstrated
that it had a legal interest.
"The Criminal Procedure
and Evidence Amendment Act, deals with, among other things, the
liberty of an accused person who would have been arrested for allegedly
committing an offence specified under the amendment.
"It does not, in
any way, deal with the relationship between applicant's members
and accused person," said Mr Mutsonziwa.
He said it was the suspect
who is a member of the public, who should raise the concerns as
regards the propriety of the statutory instrument and not the LSZ.
Mr Mutsonziwa said the LSZ had no basis to argue that the legal
profession's effectiveness in delivering their legal services
to suspects to which the provisions applied was not in any way being
compromised.
"The Legal Practitioners
Act prescribes duties and powers of the LSZ and nowhere in the Act
does it provide for litigation on behalf of members of the public,
who may or may not become clients of its members, It is therefore
submitted that the applicant has no cause of action and that the
application be dismissed," he argued.
Under the statutory
instrument issued in February 2004, police can detain a suspect
for 21 days pending application for bail.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|