HH, GBM LOSE APPEAL
…as Supreme Court tosses out appeal wrongly before court
UPND president Hakainde Hichilema and his vice president for administration Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba have lost their bid to remove High Court Judge Mr Justice Mwila Chitabo from hearing their appeal following yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling.
The Supreme Court sitting in Kabwe tossed out the opposition leaders’ appeal to restrain Judge Chitabo from presiding over their matter. The Supreme Court ruled that the appeal was filed before the wrong court and dismissed the case with costs.
The opposition leaders’ appeal followed Justice Chitabo’s refusal to recuse himself from handling an application on their right to be heard, arising from the Presidential Petition.
The Supreme Court delivering the ruling found that the matter was wrongly before court as it had no jurisdiction over the case before it.
The Attorney General Likando Kalaluka had argued that the appeal was wrongly before the Supreme Court as the court did not have jurisdiction to hear matters of recusal which were not subject to the Bill of Rights.
He further argued that the appeal was made as an ordinary legal application which should have gone to the Court of Appeals and not the Supreme Court as was the case.
Supreme Court Justice Evans Hamaundu sitting with Mr Justice Charles Kajimanga and Ms Justice Rhoda Kaoma yesterday handed down the ruling that they had considered the matter and found that it was wrongly before them and thus dismissed the case with costs.
Mr Hichilema and Mr Mwamba were expected to continue appearing before High Court Judge Chitabo for the matter in which they have asked the courts to rule that they retain the rights to be heard in the matter in which they have challenged the 2016 general election that voted Edgar Chagwa Lungu and Inonge Mutukwa Wina as President and Vice President of the Republic of Zambia, respectively.
The case goes back to Mr Justice Chitabo to deal with the preliminary issues raised by the Attorney General which the High Court could not deal with until the Constitutional Court has pronounced itself within the next 14 days.