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Justice Anup Choudry |
By Anne Mugisa
THE Uganda Law Society (ULS) has petitioned the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to rescind the appointment of Justice Anup Singh Choudry, saying he has a tainted record.
The petition came after they acquired information that Choudry had been struck off the list of solicitors in the UK in 2000 over fraudulent dealings.
The President of the ULS, Oscar Kihika, confirmed on Friday that the lawyers’ body had written to the JSC.
“We got information and the judgments of the Supreme Court of the UK and the Disciplinary Committee there concerning Mr. Choudry and we wrote to the JSC. We have asked them to act on the issue…,” he said when Sunday Vision contacted him.
The Secretary to the JSC, John Kashaka Muhanguzi, acknowledged that the Commission had received the petition.
“It has been received and the Commission has acknowledged receipt and we shall use our set procedures that we usually apply when such complaints come up. The process has been started,” Kashaka said, but declined to say what the process entails.
The ULS letter to the JSC read, “The Uganda Law Society has since received information that in 2000, Mr. Anup Sing Choudry, who was a solicitor in East London, had his solicitors licence suspended and firm closed owing to making bogus claims as part of a one million pound bill for costs when he acted for a Sikh leader in a libel case against The Sunday Times.
Anup’s name was subsequently struck off the role of solicitors.
“Based on the above, we are of the conviction that he is not a fit and proper person to hold the office of a High Court Judge in Uganda. We, therefore, wish to ask the Commission to formally request the appointing authority to reverse or rescind Choudry’s appointment as a judge; or better yet advise Mr. Choudry, to whom this letter is copied, to respectfully step down. It is our hope that the matter will be expeditiously and amicably resolved.”
The ULS which stated that they have attached the relevant documents concerning the judge’s London woes copied the letter to the Chief Justice, Benjamin Odoki, the Principal Judge, Justice James Ogoola, the acting chief registrar and Judge Choudry.
However, Justice Choudry could not be reached for comment. He was reported out of the country and the staff at the Commercial Court said they did not know when he is expected back in the country.
On January 15, 2000, a British newspaper, The Independent, reported that Choudry’s law firm, Singh and Choudry, in Dalston, East London had been shut down.
The paper reported that the firm was “targeted by the Law Society’s investigative arm, the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS). It added that “the Principal of the firm, Mr. Anup Singh Choudry was found to have made bogus claims as part of a 1million pound sterling bill for costs when he acted for a Sikh leader in a libel action against the Sunday Times.”
Choudry was sworn in as a Judge in Uganda on May 2, 2008 along with 12 other new judges by President Yoweri Museveni at State House. He is a judge in the Commercial Court division of the High Court.
In an interview in May after his swearing in, Choudry who said he was born in Masaka said he studied physiology and later law in the UK.
He said that he practiced law in the UK for 20 years until 2000 before be became an auditor in quality control-ISO 9002.
He applied to the Uganda JSC for appointment as a judge in 2004.
Published on: Saturday, 27th December, 2008
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