EFFECT OF JUDGMENT GIVEN IN CHAMBERS (instead in the Court)
Saheed Afeez Ayinde
DEEMLAWFUL
The Law creating the courts has so well in being explicit to assign the duties of the courts. The primary of which is to determine dispute and any of Resolvent of the court shall gain Legal Sanction. Hence, enforcement.
This duty is Admiralty and cannot be invoke in any other place except in the Holy place recognized by the Organic Law.
This has been re echoed in the case below where the Learned Judge in the lower court had gave judgement in his Chamber
Nigeria-Arab Bank Limited v. Barri Engineering Nig. Ltd. (1995) 8 NWLR (Pt. 413)
Relying on miscarriage of justice. Sir Ogundare, JSC, correctly made the point:
“To suggest that because the hearing was in open court, the delivery of judgment in chambers is a technicality as no miscarriage of justice was occasioned thereby, is to beg the issue. The delivery of judgment is in my respectful view, part of the hearing of a cause or matter. A breach of a mandatory constitutional provision is more than a mere technicality; it is fundamental. And it is no argument that there has been no miscarriage of justice.”
This is borne out by the decisions of this court on section 258(1) of the Constitution before the amendment of 1985. See lfezue v. Mbadugha (1984) 1 SCNLR 427”
