BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
High court has directed the Judicial Service Commission, to respond to a petition filed by suspended judge Justice Martin Muya enable the court fast track the urgent application.
Justice Weldon Korir, said he has looked at the application and he has established that the aggrieved judge as an arguable case.
The judge told the suspended judge lawyer Philip Nyachoti, that the court cannot issue the conservatory order before seeing the response from JSC whose report and recommendation are being challenged.
Justice Muya in his petition, he seeks stay of the report and findings of JSC dated May 8 recommending that the report be presented to the President to appoint a tribunal to investigate into his conduct on allegations of gross misconduct.
The tribunal according to the findings of JSC is to look into misbehavior, breach of the constitution, judicial code of conduct and ethnics pursuant to the complaint lodged by the law firm of Onynkwa and company advocates on 17 August 2017 on behalf of NIC bank limited.
Lawyer Nyachoti told the court that the presentation of the petition and subsequent appointment of the tribunal can take effect any time now hence the urgency of the the application for conservatory orders.
He said the report and recommendation were not made available to the judge until it was published in the media followed by several demands and the applicant was unable to file the suit timely.
The judge is aggrieved with the report and recommendation on grounds that the JSC exceeded its jurisdiction by delving to the merits of the ruling the subject of the complaint thereby usurping the appellate power that is contrary to the law and arrived at an illogical, irrational, unreasonable and erroneous conclusion.
Lawyer Nyachoti argued that the reports fundamentally flawed and incurably defective and wanting in validity as the commissioners made reference to several issues that are separately to the complaint.
The judge was not given a fair hearing by JSC this will come out clearly during proceeding of the petition.
The matter will be heard on June 10 for further direction.
