Supreme Court declares void articles on appeal procedure in four laws

Supreme Court has ruled all the cases going through magistrate courts, tribunals and superior courts should be appealed in the High Court within ten days.

According to this ruling signed by all five judges of the Supreme Court, articles regarding appeal procedure in four laws will be invalidated.

The invalidated articles are the article in the Judicature Act which gives 90 days for High Court rulings to be appealed in Supreme Court, the article in the Employment Act which gives 60 days to appeal rulings issued by the Employment Tribunal, the article in the Tax Administration Act which gives 30 days to appeal rulings issued by the Tax Appeal Tribunal, and the article in the Right to Information Act which gives 30 days to appeal rulings issued by the Information Commissioner.

A circular issued by the Supreme Court last month says that rulings from lower courts and tribunals should be appealed within ten days of ruling, by submitting the form mentioned in the circular to the respective court or tribunal.

Subsequently, all relevant documents from those cases have to be submitted to the High Court within seven days of the form being submitted to the lower court or the tribunal, reads the circular.

The circular also says that when the High Court receives the relevant documents, the relevant parties in the case have to be notified within seven days, and the procedural steps have to be taken in order to move forward with the appeal.

A letter signed by Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed says that the new ten-day appeal rule applies to all rulings and sentences issued by lower courts and tribunals since Sunday.