Many will rightly insist that far more important than justice being seen to be done is that it is, in fact, done.

It would be an injustice, a crime even, if in a desperate attempt to address the perennial problem of court delays, justice does not take its proper course or doubts are cast on the quality of judgments.

For this reason, the justice minister ought to tread very carefully in his plans for ‘minor’ crimes to be reclassified as administrative offences and considered by justice commissioners instead of magistrates.

He is proposing that 39 contraventions listed in the Criminal Code be heard by local tribunals rather than by magistrates during their district sittings. The intention is to give more time to magistrates to handle the more serious criminal offences.

The nature of the contraventions earmarked within this exercise are quite varied, including quite a few that appear very rarely to take up any of the magistrates’ valuable time.

According to the minister, the consultation process on depenalisation has been going on for four years. However, it is not clear whether any studies were carried out, within both the police force and the magistrates’ court, to establish scientifically how many cases involving the listed contraventions are reported to the police, how many of them end up in court and how long, on average, it takes for them to be heard and concluded.

Some offences in articles 338 (relating to public order), 339 (acts against a person) and 340 (on property) of the Criminal Code, where the mentioned contraventions feature, will be retained rather than be reclassified as of an administrative nature. So, some sort of criteria must have been used to select those to be heard by justice commissioners, though this was not explained.

The latest statistics available online indicate that, as of February, there were 16,114 cases pending before the magistrates’ court. These included 2,298 compilations and 1,390 inquiries, which take up the bulk of a magistrate’s time

Data for 2020 compiled by the CrimeMalta Observatory further show that crimes that magistrates will still have to deal with are on the rise. Incidentally, crimes against the public peace also increased in 2020. The justice minister is proposing they should become administrative offences, even if breach of the peace can, in certain circumstances, be quite serious.

Disturbing people’s sleep at night through rowdiness will fall under the jurisdiction of local tribunals, notwithstanding complaints along the years about places of entertainment and even private parties being a nuisance to neighbours.

This, and other ‘minor’ contraventions, could give rise to litigation that would still end up before a magistrate or a judge, whether in the form of appeals or constitutional applications.

Also, the public has still to be told whether further contraventions falling within the ambit of other legislation, such as the Code of Police Laws and various other statutes, will also be decriminalised.

The plan seems to be that draft legislation to make the proposed changes will be moved in parliament when it resumes after the summer recess. Until that happens, the justice minister needs to convincingly prove his is a meaningful exercise in effectively easing pressure on the courts and not simply a way to appear to be doing something about it.

The courts’ workload is likely to keep increasing, so the judiciary deserves all the help it can get to ensure only top-quality justice is meted out. The justice minister must take the bull by the horns first and only then move on to grooming.