The constitutional complaint contesting the procedure started to perhaps remove Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo from office will be heard by the Supreme Court today, Wednesday, April 9, 2025.
After receiving three distinct petitions calling for the Chief Justice’s resignation, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, an Old Tafo MP, filed the lawsuit to contest the process being followed by President John Mahama.
He argues that before sending the petition to the Council of State, President John Mahama, who had already forwarded it to the Council of State for advice after receiving it from three Ghanaians, was required to inform the Chief Justice of the removal petition and get her response.
The legislator entered the lawsuit as a defendant together with the government’s principal legal advisor, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Dr. Dominic Akurutinga Ayine.
Mr. Assafuah is requesting a ruling from the Supreme Court that, in accordance with a true and correct interpretation of Articles 146 (1), (2), (4), (6) and (7), 23, 57 (3), and 296 of the Constitution, the President was required to inform the Chief Justice of a petition for the Chief Justice’s removal and get his or her input and response to the petition’s content before sending the petition to the Council of State or starting the consultation process with the Council of State for the Chief Justice’s removal.
In accordance with a true and proper interpretation of articles 146 (1), (2), (4), (6) and (7), 23 and 296 of the Constitution, the lawmaker wants the Supreme Court to rule that the President has violated both article 146 (6) and the constitutional protection of the Chief Justice’s security of tenure as a Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, which is outlined in article 146 (1) of the Constitution, by failing to notify the Chief Justice and obtain his or her comments and responses to a petition for the Chief Justice’s removal before initiating the consultation process with the Constitution.
According to a true and correct interpretation of articles 146 (1), (2), (4), (6), and (7), 23 (57) (3), and 296 of the Constitution, Mr. Assafuah is once more requesting a declaration from the court that the President’s failure to notify the Chief Justice and get his or her input and response to a petition for the Chief Justice’s removal prior to initiating the consultation process with the Council of State amounts to an unwarranted interference with the independence of the Judiciary as guaranteed by articles 127(1) and (2) of the Constitution.
He is also seeking a declaration that the consultation processes for the removal of the Chief Justice initiated by the President are null and void and have no effect because the President violated the fundamental right to a fair hearing guaranteed by articles 23 and 296 by failing to notify the Chief Justice and obtain her comments and responses to a petition for her removal before initiating the process for her removal.
No petition to remove former Chief Justices has been successful since the 1992 Constitution went into effect.
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Source: newsthemegh.com