JCC ADVERTISEMENT OF SUSPENDED JUDGES’ HEARING UNLAWFUL
RE: ABROGATION OF THE CONSTITUTION
I refer.to the above and advise that I write pursuant to Article 2(a) (b) of the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Act No. 2 of 20 16 which enacts as follows:
Every person has the right and duty to defend this Constitution and resist or prevent a person from ..illegally abrogating this Constitution.
Article 144 (4) (a) (6) of the Constitution enacts in parts as follows:
The Judicial Complaints Commission shall, within thirty days of the judge being suspended from office… hear the matter against the judge…. The proccedings… shall be held in camera….
A plethora of authorities exist which define the word ‘camera” in judicial proceedings to mean that all documents,and hearings about the case must be in private, behind closed doors and away from the members of the public.
The above constitutional provision therefore means that it is unconstitutional for the Judicial Complaints Commission to publish any document in relation to proceedings for the removal ofa Judge.
Since Article 144 (6) is a constitutional enactment couched in mandatory terms with the use of the word ‘shall’, it has the force of an injunction restraining Judicial Complaints Commission from substituted service by advertisement of any document pertaining to the removal of a Judge.
Article 1 of the Constitution makes it the supreme law of Zambia and binds the Judicial Complaints Commission to the Constitution thereby making the Constitution to be above the Judicial Complaints Commission.
The Judicial Complaints Commission has caused to be advertised by way of print media a Notice of Hearing (attached) for the continuation of the proceedings against the three suspended Constitutional Court Judges namely Judge Anne Sitali, Judge Palan Mulonda and Judge Mungeni Mulenga.The Constitution forbids that.
The advert amounts to an abrogation of the Constitution.
A Petition shall be filed if the Judicial Complaints Commission proceeds to hear and determine the matter pursuant to the advertised Notice of Hearing.
The reliefs to be prayed for in the Petition shall include, inter alia, a writ of certiorari to quash the hearings andi recommendations and
