Accra: The Supreme Court will on August 21 rule on an application seeking to restrain the Chief Justice from enforcing warrants authorizing selected judges to conduct criminal trials during legal vacation. Mr. Vincent Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi, filed the application challenging directives for selected judges to hear criminal cases during the vacation.
According to Ghana News Agency, the case was heard by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, sitting as the sole judge, with the Attorney-General and Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie as defendants. Mr. Frank Davis, counsel for Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah, stated that the applicant was not opposed to trying accused persons but objected to their continued prosecution during the legal vacation. He argued that the continued trial of the accused during legal vacation infringed on the accused persons' rights to fair representation in court and to their lawyers.
Mr. Davis emphasized that courts traditionally sat during legal vacations to hear motions and applications, noting that trials were not ordinarily conducted during this period. He added that when trials were conducted during the vacation, they were based on agreements between the court and lawyers. Mr. Davis expressed concern that the applicant could suffer harm that could not be quantified or adequately compensated by damages.
Dr. Justice Srem-Sai, Deputy Attorney-General, urged the court to dismiss the interlocutory application. He asserted that the Supreme Court should consider three factors in determining whether to grant the application, including where the balance of convenience lay. Dr. Srem-Sai argued that the applicant had confused the Chief Justice's administrative power to issue the warrants with the discretion of individual judges in managing cases. He further contended that the applicant would not suffer irreparable harm because he was not a party to the cases in question.
The application followed indications by some selected judges that they would sit on criminal cases during the legal vacation. The judges stated that they had received warrants from the Chief Justice authorizing them to sit during the vacation and would therefore continue hearing some criminal cases.