Capping of SC judges will have serious implications for judicial independence

General news for Saturday 13 February 2021

Source: rainbowradioonline.com

02/13/2021

The Minister-designate of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, says the issue of capping the number of judges appointed to the Supreme Court has implications for the independence of the judiciary.

The candidate said that considerations of a cap on the limits of the number of judges appointed to the Supreme Court are all relevant for the independence of the judiciary.

According to him, there are concerns that the president seeks to maintain his grip on the judiciary in the appointment of judges to the SC.

He explained that Ghana has maintained its convention of maintaining a number of around 15 even though there is no limitation.

He believed that the issue could be addressed first and foremost through the appointment processes set out in the constitution.

He believed that if the stakeholders faithfully performed their functions, the Chair would prevent abuse of his function.

He noted that “if the Judicial Council had a built-in mechanism for in-depth approval of a person who could be nominated for appointments.” I think this will be the first step. Second, the Council of State must also be consulted. Even the Council of State is seen as part of the executive with which some theories will not agree. I think they can be a good means of control.

He said that according to our laws the appointment requires that we have no less than 9 more Chief Justice in the Apex Court. However, there is no upper limit.

“This is why I say, I consider the appointment process to be very material … In order to curb a president who would like to appoint as many SC judges as possible, by a subtle manipulation of the Supreme Court, the different parties involved in the procedure appointment as defined in Article 144 (2) will be very important.

<< ... if all those parties involved here took their constitutional obligations seriously with all due respect and ensured that even the case where the situation of the appointment of the President did not arise, there would be a check or there would be a signal. to the problem envisaged by my very good friend the honorable Member ”.

He also described the role of Parliament as crucial and believes that the cap is not necessary since the Constitution provides for internal control for such restrictions to be achieved.

The need to appoint many SC judges, he noted, was necessitated by the combined jurisdiction of the court.

He said the CS was an appeals court, a constitutional court, a review court, an election petition court and also a court designated by Article 185 for the approval of the publication of official documents.