High Court judge, Justice Lavender Makoni yesterday dismissed Prosecutor-General (PG) Johannes Tomana’s urgent chamber application seeking to stop the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) from suspending him or embarking on the process leading to his possible removal from office, saying the matter was not urgent.
BY CHARLES LAITON
The judge also slapped Tomana with costs of the suit.
Tomana was early this year served with show cause letters from the JSC, seeking his views on his suitability to hold the office of the PG, given his defiance of two court orders and his subsequent conviction on contempt of court.
But, instead of responding to the show cause letter, Tomana filed an urgent chamber application, arguing the JSC had no powers to institute a tribunal against him, adding the move was in contravention of his constitutional mandate.
Lawyer Addington Chinake of Kantor and Immerman, representing the JSC, argued the constitutional application was an ordinary one and neither did it seek interim relief nor request a stay of the present proceedings.
He said there was no interim order that had been granted by the court, therefore, there was no return day to talk of and the fate of the matter was completely open.
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“The applicant wishes to continue bringing parties to court without any consequences,” Chinake argued, while urging that the applicant be made to pay the costs.
But Advocate Silvester Hashiti, representing Tomana, argued that since this was not a court-sanctioned removal, the issue of costs should be deferred for determination on the return day.
In his determination, Justice Makoni said: “The urgent application is referred to the ordinary roll. Applicant (Tomana) is to pay first respondent’s (JSC) legal costs on a legal practitioner and client scale.”
Tomana is out on bail for criminal abuse of duty as a public officer or alternatively defeating or obstructing the course of justice after he allegedly ordered the release of Solomon Makumbe and Silas Pfupa, who were accused of plotting to petrol-bomb Alpha Omega Dairy Farm in Mazowe in January this year.
