Wakilii

Lwanga v Commissioner For Land Registration and 8 Others (Miscellaneous Application 10185 of 2024)

High Court · [2024] UGHCCD 132 · 2024 Application Granted AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application for temporary injunction arising from miscellaneous cause challenging Commissioner's amendment order
Decision
Temporary injunction granted restraining interference with applicant's possession pending judicial review of Commissioner's amendment order

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The High Court granted a temporary injunction restraining the Commissioner for Land Registration from registering instruments affecting the applicant's land and restraining other respondents from interfering with possession, finding a serious question to be tried regarding the validity of an amendment order that cancelled the applicant's certificates of title, where preservation of the status quo pending judicial review was necessary to prevent irreparable harm.

Outcome

Temporary injunction granted restraining interference with applicant's possession pending judicial review of Commissioner's amendment order

Facts

The applicant was registered proprietor of land in Bulemezi Block 582, Plots 14 and 15, which he had possessed since 2006. In 2022, persons connected to the 3rd-9th respondents attempted to enter the land claiming ownership. After the applicant filed a civil suit, the 3rd-6th respondents complained to the Commissioner for Land Registration, who issued an amendment order on 22 January 2024 cancelling the applicant's certificates of title. The amendment order was registered on 20 February 2024. Following this, the 3rd-9th respondents, with security guards from Pyramid Security Group, began efforts to evict the applicant, bringing equipment to level the land. The respondents claimed they were descendants of customary tenants registered as proprietors in 1976 who had occupied the land from time immemorial. The applicant applied for judicial review of the amendment order and sought temporary injunctions to preserve possession pending determination of that review.

Issues

  1. Whether the court should issue a temporary injunction in this matter

Orders

  • An injunction restraining the Commissioner for Land Registration, officials, agents and workers from effecting or registering any instruments adversely affecting the applicant's proprietorship over the suit land until hearing and final determination of Miscellaneous Cause No. 0011 of 2024.
  • A temporary injunction restraining the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th respondents, their agents, assignees, servants, workmen and all persons acting under their authority from entering onto, constructing on, disposing of, fencing off, evicting the applicant or otherwise interfering with applicant's possession of land comprised in Bulemezi Block 582, Plot 15 LRV HQT 725 Folio 12 and Bulemezi Block 582, Plot 14 LRV 3167 Folio 12 until hearing and final determination of the judicial review application.
  • Costs in the cause.

Rules and key headnotes

Temporary Injunction — Purpose and Nature — Preservation of Status Quo
A temporary injunction is a pre-emptive, preventive, interim remedy characterized by its provisional and impermanent nature, emanating from equity's jurisdiction to anticipate and prevent injury by preserving the last actual, pre-dispute, peaceable, non-contested status which preceded the pending controversy.
Temporary Injunction — Conditions for Grant — Prima Facie Case and Balance of Convenience
To obtain a temporary injunction, an applicant must show a prima facie case with probability of success, meaning the claim must not be frivolous or vexatious and there must be a serious question to be tried; the court must then balance the hardship which would be caused to the applicant if relief is refused against the hardship to the respondent if the injunction is granted, and where neither party would be adequately compensated by damages, the court ascertains where the balance of justice lies.
Temporary Injunction — Status Quo to be Preserved — Contested Status Excluded
A court should not preserve a contested status quo which is under challenge for illegality, especially under judicial review; the status quo to be preserved is the applicant's peaceable occupation of land for 20 years, not the respondents' attempts to dispossess him following an amendment order the validity of which is the subject of the pending judicial review.
Temporary Injunction — Exercise of Discretion — Irreparable Harm
The court's power to grant a temporary injunction is extraordinary and must be exercised cautiously; an injunction may be granted where the applicant will suffer irreparable loss or damage if the respondent is not restrained, and where the damage the applicant will suffer if the court ultimately rules in his favour will be greater and irreparable than that which the respondent would suffer from the grant of the injunction.

Legislation cited (4)

Cases cited (6)

  • Siteyia v Gitome & Others [1993] KLR 801
  • Yahaya Kariisa v Attorney General & Another (Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 7 of 1994)
  • Titus Tayebwa v Fred Bogere and Eric Mukasa (Civil Appeal No. 3 of 2009)
  • American Cyanamid Co v Ethicon Ltd [1975] ALL ER 504
  • Victor Construction Works Ltd v Uganda National Roads Authority (High Court Miscellaneous Application No. 601 of 2010)
  • Humphrey Nzeyi v Bank of Uganda and Attorney General (Constitutional Application No. 01 of 2013)

Full judgment

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

Lwanga v Commissioner For Land Registration and 8 Others (Miscellaneous Application 10185 of 2024) [2024] UGHCCD 132 (23 August 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.