Mzuzu-(MaraviPost)—High Court sitting in Lilongwe yesterday adjourned to February 5, 2021 the ruling in which Former Malawi President, Arthur Peter Mutharika, and former Chief Secretary to the government, Lloyd Muhara, will be told how much to pay as costs for erroneously sending the Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda and his deputy Edward Twea, on forced leave last year.
According to counsels for the former leader and his accomplice, Thembenu Masumbu and Company, the appeal for adjournment was due to the fact that plaintiff did not serve them with the court document on time and so they needed extra time to peruse the same.
However, the lawyer who is representing the parties that dragged Mutharika and Muhara to court: the Magistrates Association, Malawi Law Society (MLS) and Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), Khumbo Soko, said the three parties will wait for the court’s decision on the said date as long as justice is served.
In November, 2020, the Lilongwe High Court found the former leader and the former chief secretary in the wrong for issuing a public notice ordering the chief justice and his deputy to take an annual leave pending retirement when the two still had two more years to serve in their respective positions before their retirements.
The executive decision received serious public criticism with the Magistrates Association and the other parties challenging it in court, saying the decision to relieve the said officers of their duties rested with the judicial service commission and not the Office of the President and Cabinet.
When President Lazarus Chakwera later ascended to power in June last year, he reversed the move.
