CSLS decries shortage of Justices at Supreme Court
Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) said on Thursday that the need to fill the vacancies in the Supreme Court has become a matter of urgency with the retirement of Hon. Justice Paul Galumje on 21st April 2020 from the Supreme Court bench.
The Supreme Court which was previously short of its complement of 21 justices is now left with 12 justices as Justice bowed out of the bench.
A statement signed by Prof. Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), the President, CSLS is urging the National Judicial Council (NJC) to cause the vacancies at the Supreme Court bech to be filled.
Though, the Centre applauded recent developments in the justice sector meant to strengthen the judiciary via technology, it advocated the consolidation of these measures.
It said that additional justices at the Supreme Court “will enable the reduction of the backlog of appeals. With a full complement of 21 justices, three or more panels of the court can be sitting in turns”.
The Centre is also advocating that “all non-contentious applications such as those seeking leave for one thing or the other should be taken in chambers or via video conferencing.
According to the Centre, with the retirement of “Justice Paul Galumje on 21st April 2020, the Supreme Court has been further depleted to only 12 justices!! How can we expect only 12 justices to do the work of 21 justices especially under the strenuous working conditions of our courts?
“The four recently-appointed Justices (Agim, Jauro, Ogunwumiju and Oseji) should be allowed to commence work immediately in the Supreme Court even if in acting capacity. This is an extraordinary response to an extraordinary situation and unjustified delay of their confirmation,” the group stated, adding that the last time the Supreme Court was this depleted was probably during the General Abacha era.
CSLS also called for an urgent constitutional amendment to reduce work-load of the Supreme Court, specifically drafted to limit the variety of appeals that can be taken to the Supreme Court.
“For example, matters of dissolution of marriage, customary law disputes devoid of constitutional contents and other such matters should no longer go beyond the Court of Appeal”.
It appealed to the President Muhammadu Buhari to accelerate the confirmation of the appointment of the Acting President of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Monica Dongbam-Mensem.
This, the CSLS said, would ensure the institutionalisation of the innovative and proactive measures being implemented by the court under her leadership. The appellate courts should no longer be an epitome of the saying ‘that justice delayed is justice denied’.
It also stressed on need to prioritise the welfare of Judicial Officers to improve the welfare or working conditions of judges stating that several judges have been on the same salary scale for several years which amounted to an indirect way of reducing their salaries.
“There is no gain-saying that judges do important and extremely sensitive work. The NJC should please hasten the measures being taken to improve the take-home pay of judges as well as their allowances. Nigerian judicial officers perform more demanding work than their counterparts in other jurisdictions In addition to the usual criminal and civil cases, the courts are saddled with the task of handling both pre and post-election matters. This subjects the judges to more pressure from the political class. This is aggravated by the strict limitation of time for determining elections related matters. The legislature has continued to amend the Constitution with the resultant additional burden for the courts.
“Yet, there has been no corresponding improvement in the welfare of judicial officers. While civil servants and political office holders have had their salaries and other welfare packages reviewed upward so many times, those of the judicial officers have remained frozen for several years, and for over a decade in the case of the senior judges, the centre stated.
“There is therefore an urgent need for the NJC to take the necessary steps in liaison with relevant organs of government to ensure upward review of the salary and other welfare packages of judicial officers.
The Centre also said that the retirement package of every judge should include a minimum of a decent bungalow of three or four bedrooms and two-bedroom boys’quarters in the FCT or any state Capital. From the date of appointment, any federal judge must be assured of a decent retirement home in a suitable location.
“We humbly propose that the Judiciary should acquire land in the FCT and all state capitals which should be laid out into reasonable plots. The Estates should be developed, equipped with decent infrastructure, well-serviced and secured.
“A judge retiring at the age of 65 or 70 should have no worries about where to live after retirement. It is a national shame that several justices including those retiring from our highest courts have no decent accommodation in retirement. It makes no sense to give a retirement mansion to a retiring Chief Justice of Nigeria, who does not need it at his age, when all his children have probably left home and give nothing to other retiring justices,” it states adding that even if we continue to indulge in that, the system ought not to forget the other justices.
“The judiciary should ensure that every retiring federal judge is guaranteed a decent accommodation in the FCT or a suitable state capital in the country. The states will follow suit if they are not already doing so, it maintained.
The Centre said that the quality of justice in the country cannot be achieved without improving the working conditions of judges and their retirement benefits and appealed to the NJC, the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to make the issue of judges’ welfare a matter of priority.
