Wakilii

Helmsman Quality and Technology Services Company Limited (HQTS) v Attorney and Another (Misc Cause 224 of 2023)

High Court · [2024] UGHCCD 153 · 2024 Application Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Judicial review application challenging findings, observations and recommendations in a parliamentary sectoral committee report
Decision
Application dismissed with costs to the respondents

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

A judicial review application challenging findings and recommendations in a parliamentary sectoral committee report is premature and not amenable for judicial review where the report has been tabled before Parliament but has not yet been debated, adopted, or given rise to any enforceable parliamentary resolution.

Outcome

Application dismissed with costs to the respondents

Facts

The applicant, a Chinese company providing pre-export verification of conformity services, was awarded a contract by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards. A Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry conducted due diligence oversight visits to the applicant's offices and laboratories in Dubai and India in February 2023. Following these visits, the committee submitted an undated report to the Clerk to Parliament on 3 October 2023 with findings, observations and recommendations against the applicant, including termination of the applicant's contract and investigations by the DPP and PPDA. The applicant contended that the report contained outrageous, biased, ultravires and illegal findings alleging it was incompetent and a briefcase entity. The report was tabled before Parliament but had not yet been debated or adopted. The applicant brought this judicial review application seeking writs of certiorari to quash various parts of the report, orders of prohibition and injunction restraining reliance upon or implementation of the impugned findings, and various declarations and expungement orders.

Issues

  1. Whether the application discloses a cause of action against the 2nd Respondent
  2. Whether the application raises any grounds for judicial review
  3. What remedies are available to the parties

Orders

  • Application dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the respondents.

Rules and key headnotes

Joinder of Parties — Necessary Parties — Order 1 Rule 3 CPR
A party against whom consequential orders are likely to be issued following the determination of a judicial review application may be properly joined as a respondent under Order 1 rule 3 of the Civil Procedure Rules, even where the applicant does not have a direct cause of action against that party, provided that the relief sought arises out of the same act or transaction and common questions of law or fact would arise if separate suits were brought.
Amenability for Judicial Review — Duty of Court under Rule 7A
Pursuant to Rule 7A of the Judicature (Judicial Review) (Amendment) Rules 2019, the court is obliged to satisfy itself that an application is amenable for judicial review even where the issue has not been raised by any party and no submissions have been made on the matter.
Amenability — Public Body and Public Law Matter
For a matter to be amenable for judicial review, it must involve a public body in a public law matter. The court must be satisfied that the body under challenge is a public body whose activities can be controlled by judicial review, and that the subject matter of the challenge involves claims based on public law principles and not the enforcement of private law rights.
Amenability — Requirement of a Decision or Act
For the court's supervisory power of judicial review to be invoked, there must be in existence a decision or an act done by the public body or official. The court examines whether the impugned conduct amounts to a decision capable of being subjected to judicial review.
Parliamentary Reports — When Amenable for Judicial Review
Observations and recommendations contained in a report of a parliamentary sectoral committee that has been tabled before Parliament but has not yet been debated or adopted by the House, and which has not given rise to any parliamentary resolutions, do not amount to a decision capable of being subjected to judicial review. Where a report made by a public body contains recommendations that are fully adopted and capable of being executed or enforced, such a report would generally be liable to be subjected to the court's supervisory powers under judicial review.
Premature Applications — Judicial Review of Unadopted Parliamentary Reports
A judicial review application challenging observations and recommendations in a parliamentary sectoral committee report is premature and incompetent where the report has been tabled before Parliament but has not yet been debated, adopted, or given rise to any enforceable parliamentary resolution.

Legislation cited (19)

Cases cited (6)

  • Auto Garage & Another v Motokov (No. 3) (1971) EA 514
  • Tororo Cement Co. Ltd v Frokina International Ltd (Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 02 of 2001)
  • Kapeeka Coffee Works Ltd v NPART (Court of Appeal Civil Appeal No. 3 of 2000)
  • Master Links Uganda Limited v Attorney General (High Court Misc Cause No. 167 of 2022)
  • Mohamed Allibhai v Attorney General (High Court Misc Cause No. 217 of 2021)
  • Pastor Daniel Walugembe v Sandra Ndyomugenyi & Another (High Court Misc Cause No. 181 of 2023)

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Helmsman Quality and Technology Services Company Limited (HQTS) v Attorney and Another (Misc Cause 224 of 2023) [2024] UGHCCD 153 (19 September 2024)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.