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The Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, has filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court challenging her suspension by President John Dramani Mahama.
In a writ filed yesterday by her lawyer, Godfred Yeboah Dame, a former Attorney-General, the Chief Justice is seeking declarations from the Supreme Court that her suspension as well as the impeachment process against her are unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void.
She is also seeking an order from the apex court setting aside her suspension by President Mahama and for the court to allow the petition proceedings against her to be heard in public and not in camera.
Additionally, Justice Torkornoo has filed an application for interlocutory injunction asking the court to halt the entire impeachment process against her pending the final determination of her lawsuit.
She is seeking a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of articles 23, 146 (6) and (7) and 296 (a) and (b) of the Constitution, Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang is not qualified to be a chairman or member of the committtee set up by President Mahama to inquire the petitions against Justice Torkornoo on account of having adjudicated and given various rulings in favour of one of the petitioners, Daniel Ofori in actions filed in the Supreme Court.
The legal action by the Chief Justice came a few hours after the Supreme Court had dismissed two interlocutory injunction applications seeking an order to put on hold the suspension and the impeachment.
The two interlocutory injunction applications filed by a civil society organisation, Centre for Citizenship, Constitutional and Electoral Systems (CenCES), and an individual, Theodore Kofi Atta-Quartey, who also wanted the court to halt the impeachment process of the Chief Justice pending the final determinations of their lawsuits challenging its constitutionality.
In a 4-1 majority decision yesterday, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by the Acting Chief Justice, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, dismissed the two applications as lacking merit.
Justices Baffoe-Bonnie, Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi and Henry Anthony Kwofie were on the majority side, while Justice Yaw Darko Asare dissented.
The Supreme Court has so far dismissed three applications challenging President Mahama’s decision to suspend Justice Torkornoo after the President in consultation with the Council of State established a prima facie case against her with regard to three petitions seeking her removal.
On May 6, this year, the Supreme Court, in a 3-2 majority decision, dismissed another application for interlocutory injunction filed by the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah.
The Chief Justice is making a case that the determination of the prima facie case against her by the President in consultation with the Council of State, which led to the establishment of the five-member committee to probe the petitions, and her subsequent suspension by the President were unconstitutional.
She is, therefore, seeking “a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 19(13), 23, 146(1), (2), (4) and (6) and 296 of the Constitution, a determination of a prima facie case in respect of a petition for the removal of a Chief Justice or a Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature is a quasi-judicial process requiring a judicious evaluation, culminating in a reasoned decision”.
She is also seeking a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 19(13), 23, 146(1), (2), (4) and (6) and 296 of the Constitution, the purported prima facie finding against her was not proper and, therefore, unconstitutional, null and void.
Justice Torkornoo contends that upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 17(1) and (2), 19(13) and (14), 146(7) and (8), 281(1) and 295(1) of the Constitution, she has the right to public hearing of the petition and is, therefore, seeking a declaration from the apex court to that effect.
She is further seeking a declaration that “the right of a Chief Justice to a public hearing and all the incidents of a fair hearing may only be excluded in the interest of public morality, public safety, or public order”.
The Chief Justice is seeking a further declaration that she had the right to waive the privilege of an in-camera hearing as stipulated by the Constitution.
Other reliefs sought by the Chief Justice are orders from the court prohibiting the Chairman of the five-member committee probing the petition, Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, and a member, Justice Samuel Adibu-Asiedu, from participating in the proceedings of the committee of inquiry into the petitions.
For Justice Pwamang, the Chief Justice is seeking a declaration that he is not qualified to be chairman of the committee owing to the fact that he had adjudicated on a number of cases and ruled in favour of one of the petitioners, Daniel Ofori.
With regard to Justice Asiedu, the Chief Justice is asking the court to declare that he is not qualified to be a member of the committee because he was already a member of a Supreme Court panel hearing an interlocutory injunction application against the impeachment.
On April 22, Spokesperson to the President and Minister of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, announced that President Mahama had suspended Justice Torkornoo.
The suspension of the Chief Justice by President Mahama, under Article 146 (10) of the Constitution followed the determination of the prima facie case by the President, in consultation with the Council of State, and the subsequent establishment of a five-member committee to inquire into the petitions, in accordance with Article 146 (6) of the 1992 Constitution.
The committee established by President Mahama to probe the petitions is chaired by Justice Gabriel Pwamang, a Justice of the Supreme Court.
Members of the committee are a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu; a former Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, Major Flora Bazwaanura of the Ghana Armed Forces, and Professor James Sefah Dzisah of the University of Ghana.
Meanwhile, the committee began sitting on Thursday, May 15, this year and is expected to convene three times a week, hearing arguments from the petitioners, their lawyers and that of the suspended Chief Justice.
The whole process will be in camera as stipulated by Article 146 (8) of the Constitution.
After the hearing, the committee is expected to present its findings and recommendations to President Mahama and by virtue of Article 146 (9) of the Constitution, the President is bound to act, serving as a conveyer belt, in accordance with the recommendations.
