Hukumu

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.

An appellate court will not interfere with the decision of a trial tribunal where no substantive ground challenges the factual findigs relating to rights over the disputed property and no miscarriage of justice is demonstrated.

Civil Procedure-Failure to read exhibits aloud after admission does not render them inadmissible in civil proceedings where parties were aware of their contents through pleadings and disclosure, no objection was raised, exhibits produced by competent witness, the authentecity of documents was not disputed and no prejudice was occasioned.

Evidence-Competency of Witness: Under section 133 of the Evidence Act No. 9 of 2016, all persons are competent to testify unless they lack capacity to understand the questions or give rational answers.

Effect of Retrial-Once a matter is ordered to be retried, all prior proceedings are rendered null and void. As such, a witness who testified in earlier annulled proccedings is not disqualified from testifying again in the retrial, unless expressly barred by statute.

Interlocutory Irregularities-Procedural defects relating to interlocutory orders do not affect the validity of the final judgment unless they directly impact the decision appealed against. 

The preliminary objection raised dismissed as the writeen statement of defence signed and verified by principal officer of the corporation is valid under Order XXXIII Rule 1 of the Civil Procedure Decree (Cap. 8).

Civil Procedure-In a suit by or against a corporation, a writeen statement of defence signed and verified by a principal offcer of the company; such as a senior executive with authority to act on behalf of the corporation is competent under Order XXXIII Rule 1 of the Civil Procedure Decree (Cap.8).

Doctrine of Mootness- A case is moot where the relief sought no longer have a practical or enforceable effect, and the matter no longer presents a live controversy or practical issue requiring judicial intervention.

Judicial Review-Discretionary remedies such as certiorari, mandamus, and prohibition will not be issued where they cannot produced a meaningful legal effect; Court may still hear judicial review applications whre the impugned administrative decision has continuing or future legal consequences.

Non-Retrospective - Licences tied to annual regulaory periods cannot be reviewd or reinstated after expiry. 

Affidavit-Affidavit paragraphs that inadvertently refer to counsel instead of the party are materially defective and bear no legal or evidencial value. Such defects cannot be cured by oral submissions from the bar; proper procedure requires seeking leave to amend or substitute the affidavit before the hearing. Defective paragraphs are liable to be expunnged.

Evidence-Facts intended to contradict or supplement affidavit evidence must be sworn on oath. Statements made by counsel from the bar, not supported by affidavit, are disregarded as having no evidencial weight.

Civil Procedure-Security for costs can only be ordered against the plaintiff(s) who fall within the conditions of Order XXIX Rule1.  

Civil Procedure- Preliminary Objection- Pure point of Law; A preliminary objection must be based on a pure point of law that does not require the court to evaluate evidence or ascertain disputed facts.

Company Law- Acompany is distinct from its shareholders, who are not liable for the company's acts unless exceptional circumstances justify piercing the corporate veil. Where the pleadings allege factual involvement of a shareholder in the disputed act, determining that liability requires evidence and cannot be resolved as a preliminary point.

Contract Law- Where a dispute resolution clause uses mandatory language ("shall"), parties must comply with the requirement before approaching the court. Failure to conduct mandatory requirement renders the suit premature.

Arbitration- Where an arbitration clause uses permissive language ("may"), arbitration is optional, parties are not bound to arbitrate unless the clause expressly imposes a mandatory obligation.

Civil Procedure - A judgment is compliant with Order XXIII Rule 3(2) of the Civil Procedure Decree where it provides reasons for the decision; the law does not require "strong"  or exhausiting reasoning.

New matter on Appeal - An appellate court will not entertain issue or evidence not aised, argued or determined before the trial court.

Status of scholarly works - Academic writings are persuasive but not biding and cannot supersede constitutional or statutory authority.

Constitutional Law - Differential  statutory treatment does not amount to unconstitutional discrimination if it arises from reasonable classification and justified by legitimate public administrative functions rooted in histrorcal and socio-legal context. 

Law of Evidence - under section 66 of the Evidence Act No. 9 of 2016 and section 201(4) of Criminal Procedure Act No. 7 of 2018, a court has discretion to allow witnesses to give evidence through video link or other electronic means, provided that prosedural safequards are observed to ensure a fair trial.

Constitution - where the procedure for taking crucial evidence is undocumented or defective, the irregularity amounts to a fundamental violation of fair trial rights under section 12 (6) (a) of the Zanzibar Counstitution.