UPND Whip Gary Nkombo and Roan PF member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili have appealed against the Lusaka High Court’s ruling which refused to join them to a case in which some Lusaka residents commenced judicial review proceedings over Parliament’s decision to entertain the impeachment motion.
Nkombo and Kambwili have have filed four grounds of appeal in the Court of Appeals.
In this matter, Nkombo and Kambwili, movers of the motion; had asked to join the case in which Robert Chabinga and Henry Mulenga had challenged the Speaker’s decision to entertain the impeachment motion in the Lusaka High Court on grounds that any decision which would be arrived at, would affect them.
Delivering the ruling, Thursday, High Court Justice Annesie Banda-Bobo, refused to join the movers of the motion on grounds that they did not have sufficient interest to warrant them being joined.
But in a notice of appeal filed in the Court of Appeal of Zambia, May 24, Nkombo and Kambwili expressed dissatisfaction with Justice Banda-Bobo’s ruling saying she erred when she held that they lacked sufficient interest to be joined to the proceedings.
“Take notice that Gary Nkombo and Chishimba Kambwili being dissatisfied with the ruling of the Honourable Justice Mrs A. Banda-bobo given in the High court on 24th day of May 2018, intends to appeal to the Court of Appeal against the whole ruling,” read the notice of appeal.
The appellants stated the trial Judge erred in law and in fact when she upheld the Respondents first ground of objection to the Applicants application for joinder, to the effect that the Appellants had engaged themselves in forum shopping.
They further stated that the Judge also misdirected herself when she held that Nkombo and Kambwili had not demonstrated sufficient interest in the proceedings to warrant them being joined.
The appellants stated that the learned Trial Judge erred in law and in fact when she held that the application for joinder was fatally flawed on account of having been brought under a wrong provision of the law.
“In fact, the Appellants had invoked the inherent jurisdiction of the court in making the application,” they stated.
Nkombo and Kambwili further stated that the Trial Judge erred in law and fact when she dismissed their application for joinder with costs.