Preface

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clearly defined and limited the jurisdiction of Cadi Court to application of
Sharia to matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance where the parties or
other persons interested are Muslims.
3. Cadi Courts in the Gambia have no jurisdiction over landed properties.
4. The matter in dispute must satisfy two conditions: the claim must be specific
and that it should have full explanation.”There is a plethora of judicial
pronouncement by Superior Courts in Nigeria on this principle. In BIRI VS
MAIRUWA (1996) 8 NWLR (PT 467) 425.
5. What these requirements go to show is that it is the pre-requisite, that for a
statement of claim or Da’awa before a Cadi court to meet the required
degree of clarity by Sharia so as to qualify for hearing, it must be realistic,
unambiguous, definite, precise, apt, succinct, full and complete and must not
be evasive, vague and bogus.
6. Order 7 Rule 77 (2) of the CADI COURTS (CIVIL PROCEDURE) RULES,
2010 imposes two additional conditions where a claim involves distribution
of estate. The claim must contain:
(a) Name of the deceased, the time of his death, the estate sought
to be distributed and names of all heirs and their status.
(b) It must be accompanied by a valuation report. The relevant
rules read thus:
7. The claim in the instant case couched as thus “.....in which Mr. Malick
Gaye the plaintiff who lived in Serakunda has raised the petition against
Mr. Edy Touray who also lived in Banjul, the case is called before Banjul
Cadi Court in the subject of selling the Compound of the late Haja Bintou
Jeng of 14 Gloster street Banjul.” did not satisfy the above two requirement
of a valid claim for being vague, incomplete and ambiguous.