Former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has criticized suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo’s recent legal challenge as an abuse of the judicial process, suggesting it is intended to delay proceedings related to her removal from office.
His comments come in response to a suit filed by Justice Torkornoo at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, May 21.
The application seeks an interlocutory injunction to halt the work of a committee set up by President John Dramani Mahama to investigate multiple petitions for her removal.
The suit also requests the exclusion of Justices Gabriel Pwamang and Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu from the committee, citing concerns about their impartiality.
Additionally, the Chief Justice seeks to restrain the entire committee, comprising the two justices, former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo, Major Flora Bazwaanura Dalugo, and Professor James Sefah Dzisah, from proceeding with the inquiry.
Speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Mr. Ansa-Asare said the growing number of legal actions surrounding the issue amounts to judicial abuse.
Mr. Ansa-Asare lamented the toll such legal maneuvers place on the country’s limited resources.
He urged for greater prudence and strategic counsel in approaching such matters, noting that the judiciary must not be drawn into unnecessary legal theatrics.
Mr. Ansa-Asare stated, “Sure, it’s one too many. When you line up, case after case, case after case, it’s an abuse of the judicial process. You know that on the authority, what we are asking for cannot be granted. So if you mount repeated actions and applications, you are simply abusing the judicial process. So I’m inclined to agree with those who are saying that increasing volume of petitions has rather tended to become an abuse of the judicial process, I agree with them.”
He added, “It’s becoming too many. One is enough. So if every hour the Supreme Court has to be convened or reconvened, only to throw out, it’s affecting the nation’s resources. The little that we have, we are now having to spend it on very frivolous and vexatious applications which do no good to the image of the country. It’s only demonstrating poor legal reasoning, and approach.”
