Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal’s case will now be heard on June 2, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has said.
Mutunga has also appointed a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, to hear the case which had been certified as urgent by Justice Njoki Ndungu when she received Rawal’s appeal application on Friday.
Rawal filed the appeal through her lawyer Kioko Kilukumi barely hours after the Court of Appeal had upheld a ruling by the High Court that all judges retire at 70.
DCJ Rawal is 70.
Justice Ndungu had set June 24 as the hearing date.
“Granted the urgency under which the hearing of the application was sought and the public interest in this application, I hereby invoke my administrative powers as Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court to fast track the hearing of the application,” read Mutunga’s statement dated Monday, 30 May 2016.
"My directions are therefore as follows: the Registrar of the Supreme Court serves the parties to appear for the hearing of this application inter-parties before a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday June 02, 2016 at 10am. The Registrar also serves the parties with notices to appear for directions on the said hearing tomorrow, May 31, 2016 at 10am before Wanjala (Smokin) and Njoki SCJ.”
On Friday, DCJ Rawal got a reprieve after Judge Njoki Ndung’u issued orders barring the JSC and Judiciary Registrar Anne Amadi from serving any retirement notice to Rawal as well as advertising a vacancy in the office of the DCJ and the vice-president of the Supreme Court of Kenya or to commence in any manner the recruitment process in any media.
This was barely hours after the Appeals court had upheld a ruling by the High Court stating that the mandatory retirement age for all judges is 70.
"Pending inter-parties hearing and determination of this application, a conservatory order is hereby issued directing that the decision of the High Court affirmed by the Court of Appeal dated May 27, 2016 to the effect that the retirement age of judges is 70 years be suspended," said Justice Ndung’u Friday.
She also issued a conservatory order directing the JSC and Judiciary Registrar Anne Amadi from serving any retirement notice to Rawal as well as advertising a vacancy in the office of the DCJ and the vice-president of the Supreme Court of Kenya or to commence in any manner the recruitment process in any media.
The order is a relief to suspended Supreme Court Judge Philip Tunoi who was also challenging the High Court ruling that all judges retire at 70.
Tunoi is currently facing a tribunal over corruption allegations.
Justice Rawal is challenging a decision by the Judicial Service Commission to hire a new DCJ saying she should retire at 74 as per the contract she signed under the old constitution.
The seven judges of the Court of Appeal GBM Kariuki, Milton Makhandia, William Ouko, Kathurima M’inoti, Patrick Kiage, Otieno Odek and Jan Mohamed had upheld the High Court’s decision.