Mukono County North Member of Parliament, Hon. Abdallah Kiwanuka, has been granted leave to introduce a Private Member’s Bill, the Chief Magistrates Courts (Amendment), 2024, which seeks to increase the pecuniary jurisdiction of Chief Magistrates Courts from the current Shs50 million to Shs200 million.
Pecuniary jurisdiction is the monetary value of cases which a court can by law hear and determine.
Parliament granted leave to the MP during a sitting presided over by Speaker, Anita Among, on Thursday, 3 October 2024.
Currently, Section 207 (1) (a) of the Magistrates Courts Act Cap 16 limits Chief Magistrates to hear matters whose value does not exceed Shs50 million.
Grade One Magistrates, who are currently limited to hearing matters worth only Shs20 million, could get an upgrade to Shs100m, while their Grade II counterparts, who are capped at Shs500,000 are poised to entertain legal wrangles whose subject matter is Shs50 million.
The Magistrates Courts (Amendment) Bill 2024, says Kiwanuka, is intended to deal with backlog in the High Court, which is stampeded with matters he says should be heard by lower courts.
“…Case backlog is highest in High Court circuits with a case backlog of 19,824 cases out of 33,222 pending cases while the lowest case backlog is before Magistrate Courts which have only 11,231 cases,” he said.
He added: “…there is need to amend the Magistrates Courts Act, Cap. 16 to increase the pecuniary jurisdiction of Magistrates Courts as a means to reduce case backlog in the High Court.”
The Shadow Attorney General, Hon. Wilfred Niwagaba, supported the motion for leave, arguing that the current legislation burdens the High Court and makes access to justice difficult.
“To increase the pecuniary jurisdiction is long overdue; imagine the High Court sitting to determine cases of Shs51 million; I ask my learned brother the Attorney General to accept this amendment in good faith,” Niwagaba, also Ndorwa County East Representative, said.
Kiwanuka proposed a six months’ transitional period within which cases already in the High Court can be sent to the Chief Magistrates’ courts for determination – or retained by the High Court in exercise of its discretion.
Hon. Yusuf Mutembuli (NRM, Bunyole East County), who seconded the motion, said the current jurisdictional dispensation is burdensome and clogs the High Court while rendering otherwise highly qualified Magistrates redundant, and that the amendment is long overdue.
The Magistrates Courts Act Cap 16 was last amended in 2007, and the proposed amendments are intended to enlarge the jurisdiction of those lower courts in civil cases.
