Supreme Court not populated — Justice Kwofie
Supreme Court judge nominee, Justice Henry Anthony Kwofie, has offered a contrary opinion on the supposed packing of the Supreme Court, saying it is within the confines of the Constitution.
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He said while the Constitution gave the minimum number of supreme Court judges to be not less than nine, it did not give a ceiling.
He said to say that even the United States had just nine Supreme Court judges while a small country such as Ghana had 16 could not be properly contextualised.
Justice Kwofie explained that the US ran a federal system of government where each state had a number of Supreme Court judges, so put together they could be far more.
Justice Kwofie said this yesterday when he appeared before the Appointment Committee of Parliament for his vetting.
He is one of three justices of the Appeal Court nominated last month by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to the Supreme Court.
The other two are Justices Yaw Asare Darko and Justice Richard Agyei Frimpong, who also appeared at yesterday’s vetting sessions.
There are currently 12 justices at the Supreme Court.
They include Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, the Chief Justice; Justice Paul Baffoe Bonnie; Justice Gabriel Pwamang; Justice Mariama Owusu; Justice Avril Lovelace Johnson; Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu; Justice Prof. Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu, and Justice Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi.
The rest are Justice Barbara F. Ackah Yensu; Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu; Justice George Kingsley Koomson and Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu.
Packing of court
Justice Kwofie, the first to have attained that height from Elembele in the Western Region, said the workload at the Supreme Court was so much that very soon judges would "start falling off".
He said the volume of work and the jurisdiction justified the numbers.
The nominee said the open-door policy of Ghana's judicial system where most cases from the district courts ended up at the Supreme Court was the cause of the workload.
Unanimous FC
Sharing his thoughts on the tagging of the Supreme Court as "unanimous FC" where almost all political cases returned a unanimous verdict in favour of government, the nominee said "these are perceptions and it's difficult to deal with perception in the heads of people".
He said people went to court with their own mindset, and anything short of that was deemed as either corruption or politically motivated.
Justice Kwofie said the judiciary was not made up of miscreants who were up to mischief.
He said the Anas exposé in September 2015 of the judicial scandal involving 34 judges and magistrates did not reflect the true nature of judges.
"Judges are good and hardworking people.
I agree it's a human institution, and you could have one or two people causing trouble, but that is not how the judiciary should be.
"Judges are law-abiding, honest and good people," he said.
Exposé
In the exposé, the 34 judges were caught on camera receiving enticements of money, goats, sheep and other items.
The documentary alleged that supposed robbers, murderers, drug traffickers, rapists and litigants in land cases went free as a result.
Outstanding issues
Justice Kwofie, however, has two issues to iron out before his approval would be considered.
First, as a practice, the nominee's document should have included a report from the national security on his criminal records, if any, and a resubmission of his tax clearance certificate from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Per the tax clearance certificate he submitted, there had been zero tax charge for the past three years even though he earned a salary.
That, the committee said, was inappropriate and needed to be sent back to GRA to be rectified.
Ex gratia
On whether Article 71 holders received ex gratia or not, the nominee said it was rather a back pay and not ex gratia.
He explained that currently, he was being paid 2020 salary, which meant that when the increment or adjustment was eventually done by 2024 and the difference paid him, that could not be termed as ex gratia but rather a back pay.
For his part, Justice Frimpong called for a review of lumping hardened criminals and those who have committed lesser crimes together in prison.
He said the practice was generous and needed to be corrected in order not the convert lesser offenders into hardened criminals.
Justice Frimpong said the practice was compounding the congestion situation in the country's prisons and should be avoided.
Members of the Appointments Committee unanimously commended his works from his days as a practising lawyer to his rise to the bench.
Corruption
On corruption among the judiciary, the nominee said the issue had been exaggerated.
He said adjudication involved a number of players, including clerks, prosecutors and registrars, among others, and that it would be wrong to single out only judges.
He said much as he agreed that the judiciary was a human institution where one or two individuals could stray, "largely, the judiciary is fair, and people still have confidence in it".
When asked about his views on the impact of the anti-LGBTQI+ bill currently before Parliament, Justice Frimpong said as a judge he would be obedient to the law and act in consonance with the law.
Judicial reforms
When Justice Asare appeared, he spent a little over two hours to respond to a number of questions from the committee members.
For instance, when he was asked what best advice he would give to the Chief Justice to enhance the dispensation of administration of justice, Justice Asare, who has been an Appeals Court Justice for four years and practised for more than 30 years before joining the bench, called for the use of practice manuals by judges to expedite the administration of justice.
In the areas of case management, he suggested the adoption of mandatory pre-trial settlement conferences to explore the means of amicably settling suits before they head for trials.
“From the studies that I have seen about 90 per cent of cases that go to trial in Ghana are capable of being settled amicably,” he said.
Administer justice fairly
Asked what he would do when his religious beliefs came into conflict with enforcement of some rights guaranteed by the Constitution, he said he would take an oath that would require him to administer justice to all manner of persons without “fear or favour, affection or ill-will”.
“I think that with that oath which I swear, which is an oath that I have sworn to my God, I will be bound to administer justice.
“When I am in the courtroom, I will not be administering religion or faith, and I will seek to be bound by the law,” he said.
Answering questions on perceived or real corruption within the judiciary, Justice Asare said while there was perceived corruption associated with the service, there was a fierce fight against the canker.
“What gladdens my heart is what the Chief Justice is doing to lift the veil from the judiciary and how we are making justice work in Ghana.
In 10 years, this corruption issue will change,” he said.
Citizenship proof
When the Minority Chief Whip, Kwame Governs Agbodza, asked what document he could use to prove his nationality per what was contained in his curriculum vitae and in line with Article 6(b) of the Constitution, Justice Asare said citizenship was a question of law, and also a question of fact.
He said the evidence that would enable him to establish his legal status as a citizen was “my passport”.
“I believe that there are various pieces of documents that one can be used, but I think that your honourable member wants to test my position on birth certificate, and this Takyi Banson vs the Attorney-General (case).
“The Supreme Court has given a position on the law, and as I sit here, I am bound by that position,” he said.