Up to 1,200 cases pending before the Supreme Court will be tried by the Court of Appeal once a draft law creating the court is gazetted.

This was revealed by officials from the Ministry of Justice while explaining key provisions of the draft organic law establishing the appellant court before the parliamentary Standing Committee on Political Affairs and Gender on Thursday.

The State Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Evode Uwizeyimana, told the legislators that clearing pending cases at the Supreme Court will be one of the duties of the proposed court.

"The main purpose of the law is, first, to harmonise it with the Constitution according to how organic laws are put in place before it tackles the case backlog,” Uwizeyimana said.

Cases that have been piling up for as long as six to 12 months will be transferred to the Court of Appeal, he said.

The current draft legislation is under scrutiny at the committee level and will later be tabled before the plenary for approval.

The minister explained that the Court of Appeal will take 13 of the 20 judges of the Supreme Court and leave the latter with only seven.

At least 13 judges who will be appointed at the court of appeal, according to the draft law, will include a president and vice-president who shall then decide on how cases (appealed before its jurisdiction) will be tried.

"While at Supreme Court a bench of more than three judges take on a case, only one judge will sit in the appellate court,” said.

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