Accra, Aug. 20, GNA – The Supreme Court will on August 21 rule on an application seeking to restrain the Chief Justice from enforcing warrants authorising selected judges to conduct criminal trials during legal vacation.
Mr Vincent Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi, filed the application challenging directives for selected judges to hear criminal cases during the vacation.
The case was heard by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, sitting as the sole judge, with the Attorney-General and Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie as defendants.
Mr Frank Davis, counsel for Mr Oppong-Nkrumah, said the applicant was not opposed to the trial of accused persons but objected to their continued prosecution during the legal vacation.
“We are saying the continued trial of the accused during legal vacation offended accused persons rights to fair representation in court and to their lawyers”
Mr Davis said courts traditionally sat during legal vacations to hear motions and applications, adding that trials were not ordinarily conducted during the period.
He said where trials were conducted during the vacation, they were based on agreement between the court and lawyers.
Mr Davis said the harm that could be occasioned the applicant could not be quantified or adequately compensated by damages.
Dr Justice Srem-Sai, Deputy Attorney-General, urged the court to dismiss the interlocutory application.
He said the Supreme Court should consider three factors in determining whether to grant the application, including where the balance of convenience lay.
Dr Srem-Sai argued that the applicant had conflated the Chief Justice’s administrative power to issue the warrants with the discretion of individual judges in managing cases.
He said the applicant would not suffer irreparable harm because he was not a party to the cases in question.
The Deputy Attorney-General therefore urged the court to dismiss the application.
The application followed indications by some selected judges that they would sit on criminal cases during the legal vacation.
The judges said they had received warrants from the Chief Justice authorising them to sit during the vacation and would therefore continue hearing some criminal cases.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
Reporter: Joyce Danso 
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