JUDICIAL ATTITUDE TO LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS WHICH TEND TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO COURT THROUGH CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY PROVISIONS

Abstract

The right of access to court cannot be attenuated by a futuristic legislation as contemplated by either a statute, constitutional provision or even the National Assembly or any Legislature. The Courts guard right of access to court by the citizenry as they guard their own jurisdiction. The Courts are willing to apply the cannons of interpretation of constitutional and statutory provisions to favour the right of access to court with due deference to the derogations as contained in the substantive derogation provisions of the Constitution. This judicial prowess and sagacity have been aptly demonstrated by Valie Bairam Vahe FJ in S.A.L. FAJIMI -VS- WESTERN STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY (2011) Vol.5 WRN 1 in general and in particular C.C. Nweze JSC in SKYE BANK PLC -VS- IWU (2017) 16 N.W.L.R. (Pt. 1590)24 in respect of the right of access to Court of Appeal by litigants to appeal against the decisions of the National Industrial Court in civil matters to the Court of Appeal with Leave of the Court of Appeal. It all means that the National Industrial Court is no longer the final court in respect of the decisions in the civil jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court. Again, it is incumbent on the Legislature, that is to say, the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly to avoid inserting clauses in the Constitution and Statutes that make right of access to court dependent on non-existent or futuristic legislations or insert the causes of action and the procedure in subsidiary Legislation at the same time and pass it. Subsidiary legislations have the force of law by the provisions of Section 18 of the Interpretation Act, LFN 2004. This is because the judicial attitude to such legislations are unfavorable to the Legislature as the courts will not lend credence to putting citizens right of access to court in abeyance when the substantive provisions of the Constitution have given them right of access to court.