Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo has justified the reason why the court had to expedite the injunction application filed by the MP for South Dayi, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor.
The MP was seeking the injunction to halt aimed parliament’s confirmation of newly nominated ministers by President Akufo Addo.
The Chief Justice reacting to concerns raised over why the case was expedited said the matter was ripe for hearing as all necessary procedures had been fulfilled.
She was addressing reporters in Accra on Thursday, April 4, 2024.
According to her, she has introduced new measures to prioritize cases that have completed necessary processes for prompt hearing, bypassing court rules’ specified timelines.
“In this particular case, as soon as the case was filed, the Attorney General filed his response. He filed his affidavit to the opposition. So the case was right for hearing. We were going to go on Easter break and the Attorney General wrote and said that this is a matter of governance so could the court issue hearing notice for the case to be heard and the court was going to sit on Wednesday, so hearing notices were issued so that the applicant who filed the case himself and who should be interested in his case himself to come court and the two other respondents will also come to court.
“So the bailiff went and served all of them with hearing notices and when the court sat on that Wednesday, it formed part of our list because hearing notices have been served on everybody and the respondents had filed their affidavit in opposition. At least the Attorney General had.”
“So when the case was called the affidavit of service was on the docket. We knew that the applicant had been served, the speaker had been served, the Attorney General had been served, the speaker’s lawyer was in court, the Attorney General was in court, Attorney General had filed his affidavit in opposition, so nothing should stop the hearing,” she stated.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana