The Chief Justice speaking on behalf of her brothers and sisters in the early afternoon of Tuesday, 17th October, 2023 offered some explanation why the Supreme Court could not sit in September to hear the case brought by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against the Electoral Commission.
The NDC and 4 other political parties on 7th September, 2023 filed an injunction application at the Supreme Court to halt the Electoral Commission in its 21-day limited registration exercise which began on the 12th of September, 2023.
The injunction application which was to halt the registration exercise was listed for hearing today, 17th of October, 2023. This is 22 clear days after the start of the registration exercise and 14 clear days after its end. Conscious of the mootness of the injunction application today when the case was called to the absence of the NDC and other applicants and their lawyers, the Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Justice Gertrude Torkornoo said the Supreme Court does not sit in August and September and thus could not have heard the matter.
Preceding her speech with an invitation to the press for transmission of same to the reading public, she said the Supreme Court does not sit during vacations. Offering legal backing of the claim, she said no rules allow the Supreme Court to sit during the vacation. In a seeming lecture on legal vacation, she said court rules allow the High Court to sit. She also said the lower courts sit throughout the year and do not vacate. She thus ended her speech in open court on legal vacation by saying discussions on the date fixed for the hearing should appreciate the legal position. She added that the Supreme can only sit per the rules by an extremely Special Fiat.
The Supreme Court Bench constituted by Justices Baffoe-Bonnie, Prof. Mensa-Bonsu, Ackah-Yensu and Gaewu with the Chief Justice presiding gave Justin Amenuvor the audience as counsel for the Electoral Commission. To smiles from the Bench and laughter from the gallery, Mr. Amenuvor said the applicants are satisfied with the registration process and thus the noise that the greeted the start of the process eventually died down. He went on to indicate failure of the applicants in the case of NDC & 3 Others v Electoral Commission to file their statement of case and indicated this as a behaviour of the NDC exemplified also in an earlier and similar case of Ayuba v Electoral Commission.