IN
THE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COURT OF MALAWI

PRINCIPAL
REGISTRY

MATTER
NO. IRC PR 204 OF 2007

BETWEEN

SAJENI
…………………………………………………………………
APPLICANT

-and-

CEAR
………………………………………………………………...
RESPONDENT

CORAM: R.
Zibelu Banda – Chairperson

Mumba
of Counsel for the Respondent

Applicant – Absent

Ngalauka – Official
Interpreter

Mumba:
When the Industrial Relations Court
Form 1 was served on the Respondents the responsible officer was away
on leave. That was why
there was no response to the Statement of
Claim. We are seeking a stay of the default judgment. The amount of
money involved is
a lot.

Court:
This is not a valid reason for
staying the default judgment. There is evidence that the Industrial
Relations Court Form 1 – Statement
of Claim was served on the
Respondents by had on 31^st
May 2007. It was received and stamped by the Human Resources
Department on 31^st
May 2007. The default judgment was only issued on 4^th
July 2007 and an application for stay filed on 9^th
July 2007. I am not worried with the reason for failure to put in a
notice of intention to defend. This is not even a small respondent.

They ought to have known what to do failure with the court document
in the form of Statement of Claim. We can vast as a court operate
on
the needs or at the pace of litigants doing that will render our
functions as a court useless as we will be ineffective and
we will
deny persons an effective exercise of their rights to remedies from
courts.

In
short the reason for failure to respondent to the Statement of Claim
is not valid in law and therefore the application for stay
is
refusal. Matter to proceed for assessment.

Pronounced
in the Open Court this 11^th
day of July 2007 at BLANTYRE.

R.
Zibelu Banda

CHAIRPERSON