The Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkonoo has explained the rationale behind the early hearing of a case filed by the Member of Parliament of South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor against the approval of some ministerial nominees.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed concerns over how the Chief Justice has scheduled political cases.
This comes on the back of the Supreme Court schedulling Wednesday, March 27, 2024, to hear a writ filed by a Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Etse K. Dafeamekpor at the Supreme Court.
The NDC lawmaker is asking the Apex Court to restrain the Speaker of Parliament and the Chamber from vetting and approving some ministers of State referred to the House for consideration and appointments.
In a statement signed by the General Secretary of the NDC, Fifi Kwetey stated that the party is intrigued by the listing of the Dafeamekpor case for hearing, ahead of the case of Richard Dela Sky v. the Parliament of Ghana and the Attorney-General.
“It is interesting to note, that Richard Dela Sky filed his writ of summons in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2024, on the 5th of March 2024. This was almost two (2) clear weeks before Hon. Rockson Dafeamekpor filed his writ of summons on 18th March, 2024 challenging the constitutionality of the latest ministerial nominations by the President,” he explained.
Speaking during her first major engagement with the Judicial Press Corpse on activities on happening within the judiciary, Justice Torkonoo indicated her office was acting on the rules on such cases.
“Immediately a process is filled, you have a maximum of 21 days. Give or take another three days for service, you would have another so the instruction is to wait for a minimum of 25 days. If no process is filed, then the same here you notice that the thought was set.
“At that time, we’ll know that everybody’s been given all the opportunity given by the rules and they didn’t follow their processes. So we can either we can deal with a motion on it. In this particular case, as soon as the case was filed, the Attorney General filed his response as he filed his affidavit to position so the case was ripe for hearing.
“We were going to go on Easter break and Attorney General Votel said this is a matter of governance. So for the court issue, a hearing notice for the case to be heard and the court was going to sit on the Wednesday. So hearing notices were key issues so that the applicant who filed the case himself and he should remove a push to be interested in his case himself will come to court and all the difference and the two other respondents to also come to court.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
