No objection!

Ordinarily the court ought to grant the motion since no objection, unfortunately in the instant suit, the court refused to grant the motion as prayed, reason being that the suit sought to be relisted by the motion was dismissed and not struck out from the list by the Provision of Order 26 Rule 6 of […]

Ordinarily the court ought to grant the motion since no objection, unfortunately in the instant suit, the court refused to grant the motion as prayed, reason being that the suit sought to be relisted by the motion was dismissed and not struck out from the list by the Provision of Order 26 Rule 6 of the Kaduna State High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules (2007), meaning the order dismissing the said suit was a judgement on the merit which can only be set aside or appealed against.
The beautiful thing about this twist of event is the respondent counsel did not avert his attention to this salient point (no offense to the young wig) but rather considered it a harmless motion and didn’t object.
Watching court proceedings teaches one a new thing every day; it is possible that some young wigs in similar situation would have done the same thing (this young wig inclusive). The provisions of the Rules of Court are a statute that needs to be upheld strictly as its essence is to guide the court in the effective dispensation of justice. There are certain applications that counsels have moved and were granted without objection which ordinarily in my opinion should not pass through.
Take for instance a motion seeking extension of time to file a court process out of time the penal and default fees having been paid, in court, when such a motion is sought to be moved by the applicant’s counsel, some respondent counsel wont object because they consider it a harmless motion, without first inquiring whether or not the penal fees claimed to be paid have been paid. As ministers in the temple of justice, counsel by obligation ought to inform or notify the court on the veracity of certain facts stated by counsel, it need not be false.
It is trite knowledge that submissions or assertion of fact made by counsels from the Bar are taken to be the true positions until the contrary is proved, so when a lawyer in his motion states that the default or penal fees have been paid, a respondent counsel need to confirm if such monies are indeed in the revenue purse of the government by humbly asking the court to check its record if any assessment was made for default fees.
Similarly by virtue of Order (15) Rule (1) sub rule (2) of the Kaduna State High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules (2007), every application made to the court shall (emphasis on shall) be accompanied by a written address in support of the relief sought. The word ‘shall’ by the rules of interpretation imposes an obligation on the applicant’s counsel and does not give an option when to accompany a motion with a written address and when not to, yet some young wigs don’t object to the competence of such a motion because they consider it harmless.
The provisions of the rules of court in the numerous jurisdictions in the country are provided to better assist the dispensation of justice and not to spite any party in particular, but most of us consider a motion for extension of time or to relist as harmless and don’t object without first considering the competence or otherwise of the said motion. It is for this reason that a motion on notice no matter how innocent must be served on the respondent given them the requisite time to respond as provided by the rules even if they don’t intend to object;  if not, the motion would not be ripe for hearing.
It is true that technicality cannot defeat substantial justice in the same vein the provisions of the rules of court are in place for effective dispensation of justice. We learn every day, as such a young wig should first consider the competence or otherwise of an application made to court before saying ‘no objection’, where the objection lacks merit the court is there to correct the young wig without prejudice to any party.

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