The Commercial Court has given Bank of Uganda and businessman Sudhir Ruparelia 60 days within which to amicably settle their differences before the case file is forwarded to a judge for trial.
On Tuesday this week , the Head of the Court justice David Wangutusi appointed city lawyer Harriet Magala from Kituuma Magala and company advocates as an arbitrator in this case where Bank of Uganda accuses Sudhir of siphoning over 700bn shilings from his Crane Bank.
Bank of Uganda jointly sued Sudhir together with his company Meera Investments for illegally transferring 46 crane bank’s branch tittles into the names of Meera investments which again lease them to Crane Bank.
However according to the registrar in-charge of mediation matters at the Commercial Court Vincent Emmy Mugabo, mediation in this case cannot start unless all the necessary documents and pleadings are filed in court by the two warring partieis.
He explained the there is a counter claim filed by Sudhir against Bank of Uganda and Crane Bank that has not been responded to by the central bank.
Mugabo also ellaborated on the mediation process which is now a rule of practise to all civil matters that was enrolled in courts as an alternative despute resolution mechanism mainly to clear case backlog and maintaing relationships between parties.