Judges should not be personally interested in the outcome of any case in which they are involved, or be prejudiced or biased.
The judges examining your case must be impartial. This means that they should not be personally interested in the outcome of the case and must not be prejudiced or biased.
Impartial judge
The fact that a judge does not agree with your opinion or favours the other party’s arguments does not necessarily mean that he/she is not impartial. Judges are always presumed to be impartial. Therefore, in order to prove that a judge is personally interested, prejudiced or biased, you must have very convincing evidence.
example If the judge makes biased or discriminatory statements about you at the hearing or in public, this should provide serious evidence about his/her lack of impartiality.
A judge should not consider a case if:
- He/she is related to one of the parties or judges in the case
- He/she has participated in this case (or another case based on the same facts or dispute) at an earlier stage either as a party, expert, witness, judge, interpreter or the secretary of the court
- He/she is personally interested in the outcome of the case
Disqualification of a judge
The Administrative Violations and Sanctions Act provides that the Code of Criminal Procedure has a subsidiary application at the court stage.