The Majority in Parliament has said that the Chief Justice, Gertrude Asaaba Sackey-Torkornoo, did not err in her recommendation to the President for the nomination of five persons to the Supreme Court (SC).
Majority Leader and Member for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, told parliamentary reporters in Accra yesterday that the Chief Justice was within her constitutional powers and that the recommendations were part of her administrative duties as the head of the Judiciary.
The CJ has come under criticism from some quarters of the society including the opposition National Democratic Congress for requesting the nomination of five justices to the SC bench in her May 30, 2024 letter to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Critics of the CJ have argued that in as much as the timing for the request was bad with the 2024 general elections looming, the nominations, pursuance to Article 144(2) of the 1992 Constitution should not be emanating from the CJ but the President on the advice of the Judicial Council.
But Mr Afenyo-Markin said such arguments were flawed as the constitution does not limit the president from making appointments irrespective of the time and that the CJ was well-grounded in her request for more judges to the bench.
“The Chief Justice has not bypassed the Judicial Council. The CJ hasn’t acted unconstitutional or illegal. What she has done is to provide the background within the mandate of her constitutional powers to aid the President in the nomination of justices to the Supreme Court.
“The President” he added “is not bound by the proposed names sent to him. So in real terms at this state, the nomination really has not been triggered. These are preparatory stages that are not provided for by the Constitution.”
According to the Majority Leader, contrary to claims that the CJ acted arbitrarily by not consulting other bodies on the Judicial Council, the Ghana Bar Association and “other stakeholders” were duly consulted and they agreed in principle on the need to expand the apex court.
Instead of the emphasis on the numbers, he said critics of the CJ must retake a look at the justification given by the CJ – efficiency and effective justice administration – in her letters to the President.
To him, the concerns raised were borne out of political inclinations and that the time had come for all and sundry to “stay away from the narrow political path and look at the national interest…because once the citizen loses interest in the judiciary (our democracy is dead).”
Arguments that the court is packed with reference to the United States Supreme Court which has nine justices, Mr Afenyo-Markin said were moot as there are state supreme courts in all 50 states of the US.
This is because Ghana’s Supreme Court has original, review, enforcement, appellate, and supervisory jurisdictions unlike the Supreme Court of the US which has a limited jurisdiction, he explained.
With these broad jurisdictions, he said the apex court is inundated with cases and would need the numbers to be able to dispense with cases before it.
“Our Supreme Court has been given a broader jurisdiction as compared to the US where the Supreme Court has a very narrow jurisdiction. So to us the argument being made by a section of the public creates a rather unfortunate missing link in their comparison of both jurisdictions,” he stated.
To this end, he called for support for the CJ in the discharge of her duties to effectively and efficiently manage the justice delivery system as expected of her by the Constitution.
The CJ in her letter to the President had argued that the number of judges at the Supreme Court be capped at 20.
The names of justices she proposed to the President are Justices Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe, Cyra Pamela Koranteng, Eric Kyei Baffour, Edward Amoako Asante and Angelina Mensah Homiah.
