By DELPHINE ZULU –
THE Attorney General has submitted that former Post Newspaper (in liquidation) editor in chief Fred M’membe and his wife Mutinta are not entitled to the relief being sought in the high court because the police acted within their mandate to search their home.
Mr Likando Kalaluka in his response in opposition to the Mr M’membe’s application for judicial review stated that it was not sufficient for the applicants to merely allege that the decision by the State was made in bad faith without articulating facts to support that position.
This is a matter where the two have sued the attorney general and want the court to order that the decision of the State Police’s continued presence at their house in Lusaka’s Nangwenya area and dismantling of the printing press be stayed.
“The applicants have failed to substantiate their claim that the decision made by the officer in charge was unreasonable in the ‘Wednesbury sense’ as the principle applies to exceptional cases where
the unreasonableness of a decision verges on an absurdity,” he said.
He said it was vital to remember that in every case, the purpose of judicial review was to ensure that an individual was given fair treatment by the authority to which he or she has been subjected to and
not to substitute the opinion of the judiciary.
Mr Kalaluka contended that the printing press found on the said premises was suspected to belong to the Post Newspapers in liquidation and required to be disassembled hence the presence of State agents.
He submitted that there was no illegality in the presence of the State agents at plot number 7345 Nangwenya road to warrant a finding of illegality.
The attorney general said search warrants were presented to the first applicant to establish whether or not the property suspected to belong to the Post Newspapers Limited was kept at the said premises.
He said the said assets that belonged to the Post Newspapers Limited are a subject of court proceedings a fact well known to the applicants and that any property that belonged to the Post Newspaper  must be identified.
The matter could not however proceed when it came for hearing yesterday before High Court Judge Susan Wanjelani because the applicants asked for an adjournment in order to have enough time to respond to the skeleton response by the attorney general.
Matter was adjourned to March 24 for hearing.