JUDGMENT NO. CCZ 16/2016
CONST. APPLICATION CCZ 4/2016
would be required to take into account the fact that there is at the time of entertaining the
application for registration no application pending before the Labour Court for an interim
determination suspending the execution of the decision appealed against.
The High Court and the Magistrates Court would be exercising a judicial function in
carrying out the inquiry before registering the award. The inquiry the Court has to undertake and
the factors it has to consider are meant to define the content and scope of the right to equal
protection of the law. They guarantee the right to equal protection of the law through judicial
process.
As counsel for the second to the sixth respondents correctly submitted, registration is
not a foregone conclusion and a party against whom the award is made can successfully oppose
the registration of an arbitral award if it does not comply with the requirements for registration.
The right to oppose the application means that the parties are equal before the law. The situation
would be different if the losing party was prohibited by the law from opposing registration of the
arbitral award. Failure by a party in its opposition does not render the process unconstitutional.
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