UGX 3 trillion locked in court disputes- chief justice

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  |  More than Shillings 3 trillion is locked up in disputes before the Commercial court and High Court Land Division, URN has learnt.  According to Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, the judiciary is struggling to free the money from disputes due to human resource gaps in the two courts.

The money that could have been used for investment and development of the country is trapped in disputes related to insurance, banking and transportation, land registration and other commercial transactions.

The Commercial Division of High Court only handles cases valued at more than Shillings 50 million while the Civil Division of High Court handles disputes worth more than Shillings 10 Million and other small claims.

Katureebe says more judges will have to be recruited and deployed in the Commercial and Civil Division of the High Court to return the idle funds in public circulation. He says the four judges in the Land Division of the High court alone have 9,020 cases to preside over.

According to the Chief Justice, his office has asked World Bank to commission a survey on the loss resulting from inadequate investment in the justice sector on the country.

Moses Ogwal, the Chief Executive Officer of the Private Sector Foundation, says return on investment of Shillings 3 trillion is estimated at between Shillings 15 and 18 Trillion.

Earlier, Vincent Mugabo, the Senior Communications Officer of the Judiciary told URN that the Commercial court has a backlog of 1, 671 cases.  URN understands that some of the cases locking huge sums of money include the dispute between Church of Uganda and Land Coin Limited worth Shillings 48 billion and that between Bank of Uganda and Tycoon, Sudhir Ruparelia in the sale of Crane Bank facilities to DFCU.

Land Coin accuses the Board of Trustees Church of Uganda for failing to pay consultation fees for valuing church land in Entebbe municipality.  City businessman, Sudhir Ruparelia and his company, Meera Investments accuse BoU of fleecing Crane Bank of Shillings 397 billion in fraudulent transactions and transfers during the sale of his Crane Bank to DFCU Bank.

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URN