The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) held a meeting yesterday with local magistrates to try to avert a crisis over the management of the judiciary. The meeting comes after some bitter exchanges between local magistrates and the judicial leadership. The magistrates feel the leadership is a bystander even on issues that undermine the integrity of the judiciary.
From the acerbic correspondence between the two parties, it appears that disillusioned local magistrates have been holding meetings until they resolved to put their grievances on paper. In a letter to the Registrar and Master of the High Court detailing their resolutions, the magistrates say that the management of the judiciary is unilateral and dismissive of the input made by locals. The magistrates complain that the leadership pays lip service to issues of productivity. They are particularly concerned by what they term improper and unprocedural appointment of foreign magistrates to senior positions in the judiciary.
