NIF requirement before filing unconstitutional cases – Supreme Court

General News on Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-07-31

The Supreme Court stated in the Tax Administration Law that unconstitutional provisions prohibit persons without a tax identification number (TIN) from filing a complaint in court.

According to the unanimous decision of the court, the provision of the law is incompatible with the 1992 Constitution and may prevent citizens, including minors, from accessing the country's courts.

In her judgment by Judge Sophia Ophelia Adjeibea Adinyira, the Supreme Court concluded that subsections 2 (8), 2 (9) and 1 (9) of the First Schedule to the Administration Act, 2016 income (Law No. 915) were contradictory. the 1992 Constitution and prohibited citizens from accessing the country's courts.

The case was introduced by the Center for Juvenile Delinquency in 2018 to challenge the constitutionality of the law in the 2016 Law on Revenue Administration (Law 915).

The law prohibited a person, including minors, from going to court unless the taxpayer's TIN provided by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) was quoted.

The Center for Juvenile Delinquency in 2018 challenged the constitutionality of the law in the 2016 Law on Income Administration (Law 915).

The center requested nine corrective measures, including a declaration that the law was inconsistent and contrary to sections 2 (1), 33 (1), 48 (2), 130 (1), 132, 133 (1), 135, 137 (1), 140, 273 (1), 273 (5) and 280 of the 1992 Constitution which guarantee the right of access of a person to a court.

She also asked to be declared that the act prohibiting persons from carrying out official activities with the court, unless that person cites the TIN, is "inconsistent and in violation of Articles 2 (1), 33 (1), 130 (1), 132, 133 (1), 135, 137 (1) and 140 of the 1992 Constitution which guarantee the right of a person, including a minor, to Have access to a court and are therefore void, void and unenforceable. "

The center's final remedy was a "perpetual injunction order prohibiting defendants, their agents or agents or judicial agents, under the pretext of acting under subsections 2 (8), 2 (9) and 1 (9). of the first the Law of 2016 on Income Administration (Law 915) to prevent anyone from filing a complaint with a court of Ghana on the grounds that the person has not cited its taxpayer identification number issued under the taxpayer identification number system of the 1st defendant (GRA) ".