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This Act provides for the establishment of subordinate courts to the High Court in each District, and provides with respect to the jurisdiction, proceedings and administration of such courts. There shall be three classes of subordinate courts for each District. Subordinate courts may transfer proceedings at any stage to a Local Court. In civil causes and matters a Subordinate Court of the first class shall, subject to this Act and in addition to any jurisdiction which it may have under any other written law, within the territorial limits of its jurisdiction, have jurisdiction to hear and determine any action for the recovery of land where either the value of the land in question or the rent payable in respect thereof does not exceed the sum of five million kwacha by the year, or, in the case of a Subordinate Court presided over by a principal resident magistrate or a senior resident magistrate, six million kwacha by the year. Service out of Zambia may be allowed by the court whenever the whole or any part of the subject-matter of the suit is land or stock or other property situate within its jurisdiction, or any act, deed or thing affecting such land, stock or property. Nothing in this Act shall deprive a Subordinate Court of the right to observe and to enforce the observance of, or shall deprive any person of the benefit of, any African customary law, such African customary law not being repugnant to justice, equity or good conscience, or incompatible, either in terms or by necessary implication, with any written law for the time being in force in Zambia.
Amended by: Subordinate Courts (Amendment) Act (No. 4 of 2018). (2018-04-09)
