Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku has bemoaned lack of professionalism on the High Court bench which has resulted in the accumulation of case to over 40 000 dating back from 2002.
Officially opening the 2016 legal year in Harare recently Chidyausiku said the number of unsanctioned records was unacceptable.
“These are matters that were filed as way back as 2002 up to 2012 but are lying idle with no one prosecuting the claim or applying to have it dismissed,”he said.
“Twenty thousand of the records are summons of applications that have not been served on the defendants or respondents some people may not know that they have been sued and are part of the High Court statistic even as I speak”.
Last year during the official opening of the 2015 legal year, Chidyausiku bemoaned incompetency on the High Court bench.
But despite the  backlog Chidyausiku said there was a great improvement on the number of fresh cases which the High Court dealt with last year.
“I am happy to report that the performance of the High Court this year has exceeded my expectations and I wish to heartily congratulate judges of that court for the pleasing performance as evidenced by the number of judgments that they have returned during the course of the year,” he said.
“The number of judgments handed down has in turn drastically reduced the number of complaints that I used to receive over delayed judgments”.