CJ suspension: AG moves to strike out Torkornoo’s judicial review application

The Attorney-General has filed a motion at the High Court’s Human Rights Division seeking to strike out suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo’s application for judicial review.

The AG’s office is citing fundamental legal defects in the filing.

Last week, the suspended Chief Justice instructed her lawyers to file an application for judicial review at the High Court, seeking to declare the ongoing proceedings for her removal from office as unlawful and void.

Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, June 25, Justice Torkornoo described the process currently being undertaken by the committee set up under Article 146 of the Constitution as “a total absence of compliance with all known rules of fair hearing.”

“It is this total absence of compliance with all known rules of fair hearing that has caused my lawyers to file applications for judicial review in the High Court to declare all the proceedings void,” she stated.

• Read also: Torkornoo files for judicial review to declare removal proceedings void

But in a sworn affidavit by State Attorney Reginald Nii Odoi, the A-G’s office contends the application contains a “grave misstatement of capacity” and fails to include mandatory parties, rendering it legally incompetent.

The Attorney General’s affidavit argued that the matters raised are either already adjudicated by the Supreme Court or currently pending before it.

The Attorney-General maintains the Human Rights Court lacks jurisdiction, warning that entertaining the application would constitute judicial overreach and violate established Supreme Court precedents.

The motion seeks to prevent what the AG sees as a parallel litigation on matters already before the apex court.

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