RULING
The application before me dated 16th September 2020 is yet another poignant and disturbing reminder that the craft of litigation in this country, and specifically appellate litigation, is fast sinking towards the nadir and calls for urgent and concerted efforts to arrest the slide towards a point of no return, beyond retrieval. I can only hope that Judges, law schools and senior practitioners see the lapses such as revealed in the motion before me as symptomatic of the broken window that, unchecked, can only be a harbinger of worse to come.
First off, it is quite obvious that this application should not have been made to Court at all. The substantive order it seeks, as presented, is;
“2. THAT this honourable court be pleased to grant the respondent/appellant (sic) herein leave to file his response to the memorandum of appeal and cross-appeal outside the time stipulated.”
The Rules of this Court do not anticipate, and do not provide for, a response to the memorandum of appeal as suc…