THE President of the Seychelles Court of Appeal, Justice Francis Macgregor, has stated that the Court of Appeal is “fairly satisfied” with the disposal rate of cases thus far. Justice Macgregor was speaking at the closing of the latest session of the Court of Appeal on 25th April 2008. Justice Macgregor stated:
“We have come to the closing of our April Sessions. During which we have dealt with 23 cases: 13 judgments to be delivered this morning; 5 have been adjourned at request of counsel, 2 of them due to unavailability of counsel; 5 have been settled amicably although one remains on the list to review settlement.
We are fairly satisfied with the Disposal Rate with an average of between 20-25 cases per session. Most cases have been dealt with less than a year of notice of appeal. We can fairly say we have no backlog of cases since last August on all appeals pending.
Heads of Arguments under the rules we wish to draw attention of counsels to the sanction of it not being ready at the hearing and/or consequences of late and very late heads of arguments, which could lead inevitably to adjournment if we are to do justice to the cases. The delays if occurred also may cause inconvenience and annoyance to some litigants, and opposing counsel who are in order.
Applications for Adjournment on other grounds, particularly late request where there is no consensus, we wish to reiterate we will take more seriously in future, and granted only on exceptional grounds such as the right to representation and voluminous amount of records received late.
On the other hand counsel in general were expeditious in the use of time before us, and the intra-courtesy appreciated.
We believe the present currency of judgments will not only determine disputes and grievances but also lend itself to setting and settling standards and norms for the enhancement of administration of justice by this Court.”