Former Principal Judge loses Equal Retirement benefit case

By Rachael Najjuma

25^th Oct 2022

The Constitutional Court has dismissed without costs a petition that had been filed by Retired Judge Dr. Yorokamu Bamwine challenging the Administration of the Judiciary Act 2020 that he says is discriminatory.

Rtd. Justice Bamwine who served as a principal judge at the time of his retirement and having served the judiciary from 1983 to 2019 petitioned the constitutional court after being dissatisfied with the way a principal judge is treated when it comes to the benefits he gets from the judiciary.

In his petition, Justice Bamwine claimed that while the chief justice and deputy chief justice at their time of retirement got 100% monthly emoluments, but the principal judge doesn’t yet he is one of the three administrative heads of the judiciary.

He further contended that the principal judge is further discriminated against when it comes to fuel and vehicle repair allowances, consolidated allowance for airtime and internet yet the chief justice and his deputy do get something he said needed to be rectified among others.

However in their ruling, the five justices of this honourable court who include Catherine Bamugemereire, Stephen Musota, Irene Mulyagonja, Christopher Madrama and Muzamir Kibeedi have all agreed to dismiss the petition on grounds that there isn’t any act of discrimination or unconstitutionality that is being portrayed in the said act.

In their ruling, the judges noted that Article 21 of the republic of Uganda by guaranteeing equality and freedom from discrimination was not intended to mean equal treatment to all persons in all different aspects of life.

They further said that in a society which is heterogeneous, same treatment of unequal persons inevitably leads to different unintended consequences for the different persons and it is a recipe for creation of unintended inequality and greater injustice in the name of equality.