Sunday, 21 June 2015

Make use of the Constitutional Court

he constitutional court is provided for under Article 137 of the 1995 constitution of the Republic of Uganda as amended. It is from the court of appeal that the constitutional court is constituted. 

This court basically deals with matters to do with interpretation of the constitution and those antecedents there too.

The above provision empowers any person who alleges that an Act of Parliament or any other law or anything is or done under the authority of any act or omission by any person or authority is inconsistent with or in contravention of a provision of this constitution may petition the constitutional court for a declaration to that effect and for redress where appropriate.

The Government has faced criticisms by members of the civil society , stake holders ,opposition members, citizens and individuals over some acts, laws and policies and regulations for being unconstitutional and always attacked for acting in contravention of democratic principles.

The public and order management Act when still aBbill faced criticisms before it was passed into law .to date the same has been implanted but even the people or critics who were at the forefront have never petitioned court to challenge its unconstitutionality

It seems undressing especially by some women is a new trend of contesting or expressing discontent against the government. It’s quite unfortunate that women who have engaged in this disheartening act are or seen to be mature. This also puts the law enforcers into a dilemma of how to handle such people without ‘violating their rights.’

If one really thinks that their rights have been violated then they can exploit the opportunity of petitioning the constitutional court .The youth who claim to be poor and have branded themselves as such and blame the government for not providing jobs  may have a point if justified but the way of putting it across matters. This rhymes with an equity maxim that ‘He who seeks justice must come with clean hands’.

Once a petition has been preferred before the constitutional court, the court of appeal is bound to proceed to hear and determine the petition as soon as possible and May for that purpose, suspend any other matter pending before it.This means that such matters are expeditiously handled. If the constitutional court is overwhelmed by the number of petitions before it.Then it is worth amending the constitution to make constitutional court independent in terms of its composition since such matters are determined by court of appeal sitting as a constitutional court. Read more

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