The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, has written to all states governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on the need for them to comply with the judgment that granted fiscal autonomy to the Judiciary and declared illegal the installment release of its annual allocation by the executive.
The CJN also notified them that by the judgment delivered on January 13 by Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, the judiciary was no longer required to submit its budget to the executive for inclusion as an item on its Annual Appropriation Bill to the legislature.
Also, all administrative heads of courts in the country, under the aegis of the Association of Court Registrars and Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (ACRJSUN) have resolved not to submit their various courts’ budgets for next year to the executive for scrutiny.
In compliance with the January judgment, they vowed to send their budgets directly to the appropriate legislative houses.
These were made public in a statement issued on Wednesday by the media aide to the CJN, Yusuf Isah, on the resolutions taken at a joint meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday by Court Registrars and members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).
It was agreed at the meeting jointly chaired by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Sunday Olorundahunsi, and the JUSUN President, Marwan Adamu, that it would amount to contempt of court to submit budget proposals to the federal and states budget and planning offices or commission.
They also agreed that federal and state judiciaries should not obey or condone budgetary ceilings likely to be placed by the Federal Government and some state governors to subvert judiciary financial autonomy.
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