The High Court has ruled that Pheona Wall was wrongly kicked out of the Judicial Service Commission race by the Uganda Law Society.
Wall last year sued the Uganda Law Society together with Moses Mwase, the chairperson of the Uganda Law Society election committee for omitting her name from the final nomination list of the lawyer’s umbrella body to the Judicial Service Commission.
In a ruling on Friday, Justice Musa Ssekaana said it was wrong for ULS not to accord a fair hearing to Wall before kicking out of the race.
“The respondents tried to make up a semblance of a hearing or fair hearing but it fell far short of the standard of fairness expected of an election body which hold the key to have a transparent electoral process from nomination to elections of the successful candidates,” the judge said.
He said by calling Wall and her husband and later denominating her from the process showed she was not accorded any fair hearing since no evidence has been presented by the law society to show there was any process followed.
“It appears the calling of the applicant was a mere formality to validate their predetermined decision without any intention of giving the applicant a fair hearing.”
“ It is clear the applicant was not invited to explain her alleged inadequacy of 15 years standing through a fair hearing but rather was merely invited for purposes of relaying their decision to denominate her. The said decision of the respondent was irrational and perverse since this was a finding of fact to a material matter which was not supported by any evidence.”
According to the judge, there is a general duty to treat every person who appears before any administrative body like the respondent fairly.
The judge quashed the decision of the Uganda Law Society to kick Pheona Wall out of the race but also condemned the law society and Mwase to costs.
