The Supreme Court
The Supreme Court whose decisions are final is the highest judicial authority in the land. The said court consists of seventy judges operating through panels each composed of three judges presided over by the most senior thereof. The decisions, which are reached by the majority of opinion, are subject to revision only if and when the chief justice deems that an infringement of sharia laws had taken place. In this case he convenes a five Supreme Court judges panel the majority of whom not must have participated in reaching the disputed decision in order to resive the matter. The court disposes of appeals against the judgments of the courts of appeal in civil, criminal and personal matter cases.
It has a preliminary jurisdiction of a single judge to consider appeals against the administrative decision of the president of the republic of the governors and of the federal and state ministers. Appeals from the decision of this single judge’s court are dealt with by panel of three Supreme Court judges.
Members of the Supreme Court are appointed by the president of the republic on the advice of the supreme council of the judiciary from amongst members of the courts of appeal or other persons satisfying the qualifications and the required conditions.
Four circuits of the Supreme Court operate outside the capital in the western, central and eastern states.
The courts of appeal
There are one hundred and thirty appeal court judges who function through 28 appeal circuits each consisting of three judges presided over by the most senior thereof. The decisions are reached by the majority y of opinion. They deal with appeals against the preliminary and appellate decision of the public court, the preliminary judgments of the first grade judges’ courts in civil, criminal and personal matter cases. They are endowed with the power to revise their own decision within the limits set by law while they also have preliminary jurisdiction of single judge’s court to revise the administrative authorities. There are 28 appeal circuit distributed among the 26 states.
The public court
The public court is the court of a single judge, the preliminary jurisdiction of which is defined by law in civil, criminal and personal matter cases. It also enjoys an appellate jurisdiction against judgments of magistrate of third and second grade in criminal cases. The number of public court judges is 133.
District courts of the first, Second and third grades
There are 397 court of first instance distributed all over the country. Their power are prescribed by the civil procedure act of 1983 and the code of criminal procedure of 1991 .the chief justice defines their pecuniary powers in civil cases and their penal powers vis-à-vis the imposing of fine also criminal cases . They also dispose of the matters summarily and non-summarily depending on the merits of cases.
Town and rural courts
These are popular court whose members are chosen from amongst citizens of good conduct who are well known, well reputed and reasonably well off in rural areas their membership includes tribal chief, omdas, sheikhs, and nazirs. The distinctive feature of these courts is their application of customs, which are not inconsistent with the general law or with public policy. They resort in most cases to conciliation and accord in solving disputes over areas of pasture, water and cultivation .the competence of each court is specified in its warrant of establishment issued by the chief justice. There are98town courts,67intermediate courtsand897rural courts which add up to a total of 1062courts.these courts are situate in remote areas particularly those where there are no district courts .town courts , as their name implies, are found in towns and deal mostly with simple cases, referred to them by the competent judge in the locality.
