My brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry (James 1:19).
Audi alteram partem (or audiatur et altera pars) is a Latin phrase meaning “listen to the other side” or “let the other side be heard as well”. It is a principle that no person should be judged without a fair hearing in which each party is given the opportunity to respond to the evidence against them. NB: Anytime you voilate the rule of Audi Alterem Partem, be sure that whatever decision you take/order given at the end is declared NULL & VOID.
Consequently, on an administrative action in Law, it is even regarded as an illegality. The question therefore is this: For how long have you been silent on a matter brought before you by one against another? OrHave you already taken a decision on the matter without listening to the other side? If your answer is YES, then you have voilated the rule of Audi Alterem Partem.
Are you aware that the other person may have some ideas/points that never occured to you in deciding your position? Are you also aware that these ideas/points may even make the entire case presented to you by the first person irrelevant?
In this case, it is very important for all of us to practice patience, the art of listening, repeating back what you have heard, and validating the feelings of the other person. These skills will make us much better at resolving issues in general and conflicts in particular whenever they occur in a peaceful manner.
In Chairman, Board of Mining Examination *V.* Ramjee, (1977) 2 SCR 904, Krishna Iyer, J. speaking for the court observed: “Natural justice is no unruly horse, no lurking land mine, nor a judicial cure-all. If fairness is shown by the decision maker to the man proceeded against, the form, features and fundamentals of such essential processual propriety being conditioned by the facts and circumstances of such situation, no breach of natural justice, without reference to the administrative realities and other factors of a given case, can be exasperating. We can neither be finical nor finatical but should be flexible yet firm in this jurisdiction.”
In conclusion, Proverbs 19:20 says, “Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future”.
Thanks and may God richly bless you.
(Ps. Fanuel D. Hotsonyame @AG, Ghana).
