The Supreme Court has rescheduled the hearing of an interlocutory injunction to stop President John Mahama and the Council of State from acting on three petitions against Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo to April 9.
The application was filed by MP for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, on March 27, over the potential removal of the Chief Justice.
He contends that President John Dramani Mahama, who received the petition from three Ghanaians and had already forwarded it to the Council of State for advice, was mandated to notify the Chief Justice about the petition for her removal and obtain her response before referring the petition to the Council of State.
The legislator joined the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Akurutinga Ayine, the government’s principal legal advisor, to the suit as a defendant.
Mr Assafuah is praying the apex court for a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of articles 146 (1), (2), (4), (6) and (7), 23, 57 (3) and 296 of the Constitution, the President was mandated to notify the Chief Justice about a petition for the removal of the Chief Justice and obtain his or her comments and responses to the content of such petition before referring the petition to the Council of State or commencing the consultation processes with the Council of State for the removal of the Chief Justice.
The lawmaker wants the Supreme Court to declare that upon a true and proper interpretation of articles 146 (1), (2), (4), (6) and (7), 23 and 296 of the Constitution, failure by the President to notify the Chief Justice and obtain his or her comments and responses to a petition for the removal of the Chief Justice before triggering the consultation process with the Council of State constitutes a violation of article 146 (6) as well as the constitutional protection of the security of tenure of the Chief Justice, who is a Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, stipulated in article 146 (1) of the Constitution.
Mr Assafuah is again asking the court for a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of articles 146 (1), (2), (4),(6) and (7), 23 (57) (3) and 296 of the Constitution, a failure by the President to notify the Chief Justice and obtain his or her comments and responses to a petition for the removal of the Chief Justice before triggering the consultation process with the Council of State amounts to an unjustified interference with the independence of the Judiciary enshrined in article 127(1) and (2) of the Constitution.
He is further seeking a declaration that the failure by the President to notify the Chief Justice and obtain her comments and responses to a petition for the removal of the Chief Justice before triggering the process for her removal, constitutes a violation of the fundamental right to a fair hearing contained in articles 23 and 296, and renders the consultation processes for the removal of the Chief Justice initiated by the President null, void and of no effect.
Since the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution, no petition for the removal of previous Chief Justices were successful.
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