Judgment No. CCZ 1/2014 6
Const. Application No. SC 240/2010
Mr Mutangadura argued that what was required of the applicants was the raising
of a question of a contravention of the Declaration of Rights and a request that the presiding
magistrate refer the question to the Supreme Court for determination. In this case, the question
was raised before the magistrate at the initial remand without a request that it be referred to the
Supreme Court for determination.
Once the decision to remand the applicants was made on the ground that there
was a reasonable suspicion of their having committed the offences with which they were
charged, and that position still prevailed at the time they appeared in the High Court for trial, the
prosecution could not be stopped on the basis that they had been tortured or subjected to
inhuman or degrading treatment.
There was no legal basis on which the trial judge could refer the questions of
contraventions of ss 13(1), 15(1) and 18(1) of the Constitution to the Supreme Court for
determination under s 24(2) because the question of the existence of a reasonable suspicion of
the applicants having committed the offences with which they were charged had already been
determined justifying their arraignment before the High Court. The High Court could not turn
the proceedings before it into an inquiry into the correctness or otherwise of the decision of the
Magistrates Court to place the applicants on remand. It could not seek to have the correctness of
that decision impugned through the procedure under s 24(2) of the Constitution because the
Supreme Court would no longer be exercising original jurisdiction in the circumstances. The
court would not be determining the question of violation of the right to personal liberty but
reviewing the decision of the Magistrates Court.