Civil Procedure — Extension of Time — Written Submissions — Principles Governing Exercise of Discretion — Delay Explained by Illness of Counsel — Jurisdiction as a Fundamental Issue.

Criminal Law—Trafficking in narcotic drugs—Search and seizure—Requirement of independent witnesses—Chain of custody—Burden of proof.

Evidence Law - Section 138 - Communications During Marriage - Whether the scope of section 138 of the Evidence Act, No. 9 of 2016, extends to the act committed by spouses

Judicial Notice-Binding Nature of a Court's Decisions: A Court is entitled to take judicial notice of its own previous decision delivered by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Stare Decisis-Effect Across Court Registries:

The Doctrine of stare decis applies to the court as an institution and is not limited by geographical location of a registry. Decision of the High Court bind all its registries, which together constitute one Court.

Judicial Comity and Consistency: Judicial comity and the need for consistency in judicial decisions require a court to adhere to its prior rulings on identical issues to avoid unnecessary duplication of proceedings and waste of court precious time.

Constitutional Law-Jurisdiction: Disputes relating to validity of the election or appointment of members of parliament are union matters governed by the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania and union legislation.

Constitutional Law-Article 83: Article 83 vests exclusively original jurisdiction in the High Court of United Republic to hear and determine parliamentay election.

Constitutional Law-Concurent Jurisdiction-Article 115: Concurent Jurisdiction between High Court of Zanzibar and the High Court of United Republic under article 115 is not absolute and is subject to express constitutional limitations, including article 83.

Courts-High Court of Zanzibar-Jurisdiction: The High Court of Zanzibar, though possessing unlimited jurisdiction under Zanzibar Constitution and the High Court Act, cannot exercise jurisdiction in matters where the union Constitution  has expressly vested jurisdiction in another court.

Court-Ancillary proceedings-Jurisdiction: Jurisdiction over ancillary or incidental applicatons follows jurisdiction over the substantive cause; where court lacks jurisdiction over the main suit, it equally lacks jurisdiction over applications arsing therefrom.

Precedent-Binding Authority: Decisions of the CAT are binding on all subordinate courts and remains good law unless reviewed, overruled or displaced by constitutional amendment. 

Criminal Procedure-Apperance of parties: In the absence of an express statutory requirement, an applicant in an interlocatory criminal application is not required to appeared to appear personally in court where the applicant is dully represented by an Advocate.

Advocates-Right of apperance-Presumption of Authority: An Advocate appearing on record is presumed to have proper authority to act for a client and is not required to annex documetary proof of instructions unless the law expressly provides otherwise.

Evidence-Affidavits-Admissions on Oath: An Admission made on Oath in an affidavit is biding upon the party making it, and such a party is estopped from subsequently denying the admitted fact.

Procedure-Affidavits-Adoption of depositions: The adoption or incorporation of factual depositions from another affiavit, for purposes of avoiding repetition, does not amount to a legal argument and is procedurally permissible.

Representation-Union Institutions: Returning Officer as employee of a Union Institution, proper representation lies with the Attorney General of Tanzania.

Right of Audience- No automatic right of apperance: State Attorneys from the Attorney General of Zanzibar cannot appear in Union matters without statutory authority.

Procedure- Failure to follow statutory requirement- apperance rendered improper. 

That in a charge of murder, must be grounded on legally admissible, cogent and sufficient evidence, failing which the accused is entitled to an acquittal at the close of the prosecution's side.

Crimina Law- Murder-Essential Ingridients of the offence; proof of death, proof of unlawful cause of death, proof of participation and malice aforethought. 

Prima Facie Case Test (No Case to Answer)- At the close of the prosecution's case, the court must determine whether the evidence adduced, if believed and left uncontroverted, is sufficient to warrant putiing the accused on his defence, as required under section 263(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act No. 7 of 2018.