The Chief Justice of the Gambia, Hassan B. Jallow has given a directive for all superior courts to go on summer vacation until end September 2020.
The superior courts in The Gambia are the High
Court, the Gambia Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court while other courts are
regarded as subordinate courts.
The Chief Justice relied on Section 143
subsection 1 of the 1997 Constitution to make such directives amid the surge in
the number of cases of the novel coronavirus.
This is the fifth directive by the Chief Justice
in 2020. Chief Justice Jallow said the current situation poses a greater danger
to the health and safety of people, thus the need for measures to be taken to avoid
the spread of the virus.
The Gambia currently has about a thousand
confirmed cases of the coronavirus which has been declared as a pandemic by the
World Health Organisation. The Gambia Government on the 5th August
2020 has declared another state of public emergency which indicated the country
is facing a situation that is far from normal because it is life-threatening.
He said application for bail and other matters in
the superior courts should be heard by the vacation judge, believed to be
Justice Ebrima Jaiteh.
He directed that all subordinate courts should
scale down their operations. He instructed judicial officers (judges and
magistrates) to endeavour to complete drafting pending judgements and rulings.
He directed all rulings and judgments delivered or scheduled to be delivered
should be submitted to his office not later than the 9th October
2020.
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