THE Ministry of Constitution and Legal Affairs has appealed to various organs involved in the justice chain to expedite the process of handling cases that pass through their hands to enable the Judiciary of Tanzania to deliver timely judgments and thus enable citizens to receive justice in a timely manner.
Deputy Minister Geofrey Pinda made such an appeal while answering a question before the National Assembly here from Neema Lugangira (Special Seats-CCM).
“I would like to inform this esteemed House that the Judiciary has never delayed making judgments of various cases without the existence of significant factors contributing to the delay in the case,” he said.
According to the Deputy Minister, there are various bodies involved in the handling of cases. These bodies, he said, includes the Police, Prisons, Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau, National Prosecution Office, Office of the Chief Government Chemist, among others, before reaching to Court.
Thus, he said, in the normal context it could be seen that the Judiciary is the one who delays the issuing of judgments, but the reality is that cases are processed by the bodies he mentioned and sometimes the process takes a long time before Courts are given a chance to deliver decisions.
In her question, the MP wanted to know why the Court should not be given the responsibility of feeding inmates who are in prison due to delays in provision of the judgments.
In his responses, Mr Pinda explained that Prisons are ones with the legal duty of providing food services. He noted that in terms of the Prisons Act Chapter 58, section 105 empowers the Minister of Home Affairs to make Regulations, namely (The Prisons Management Regulations) for such purpose.
The deputy minister pointed out that Section 23 of the Regulations derived from the Act directs the Chief of Prisons to administer food to prisoners and detainees while they are in prison as part of the Prisons responsibilities.