The Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency, James Gyakye Quayson, has gone to the Supreme Court praying it to set aside a Court of Appeal decision that struck out his appeal against a High Court decision for non-compliance with court procedures.
The embattled lawmaker and his lawyers are accusing the Court of Appeal of acting arbitrarily.
A Court of Appeal in Cape Coast on March 22, 2022, threw out an application by the Assin North MP, challenging the High Court’s ruling that declared the parliamentary election as null and void.
The court had ruled that the MP could not hold himself as MP, a ruling which was affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
The presiding Judge, Her ladyship Irene Charity Larbi stated that the MP failed to comply with the court’s directive of making his written submission within a stipulated period of 21 days beginning from the day the application was filed in October 2021.
However, his lawyers have argued that the court was prompted about a pending motion seeking to disqualify the Presiding Judge from continuing with the case.
According to them, the motion was due to be heard on March 24.
It is their case that the Presiding Judge did not allow Lead Counsel, Tsatsu Tsikata, to press for the case to be put on hold.
The lawyers also alleged that a defective registrar summon was used to call the case in Court.
“….when the case was called, Lead Counsel, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, drew the attention of the Court to the fact that, given the form in which the certificate had been issued, he did not even know how to announce himself. The presiding Judge, upon seeing that the form of the certificate was wrong, immediately announced in open court that what Counsel had drawn attention to was ‘only a clerical error’ when, in fact, the certificate was simply not compliant with Civil Form 11 A in the Court of Appeal (Amendment) Rules, 1999 (C. I. 25).”
The lawyers for the MP are further alleging that although they had pointed out the defects, the Presiding Judge went ahead to correct them in her handwriting.
“The Court held up proceedings and waited until the Registrar came into court, whereupon the Presiding Judge then proceeded to give directions as to the “corrections” to be affected by her handwriting.”
They said the court went on recess and resumed but did not rule on the objection regarding the defects, but rather to strike out the appeal without giving the legal team a chance to speak to that matter.
For these reasons, they are asking the apex court to quash this decision and restore all processes relating to the appeal.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
