Judiciary must sanitize administration of justice - CJ

The Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood has tasked the judicial service to do what was right and noble in order to avoid creating an environment in which misconduct could thrive in the administration of justice.

According to her the burden of sanitizing and rebuilding the judiciary was a collective responsibility of all stakeholders in the justice delivery.

She was speaking at the 8th Annual Chief Justice Forum in Accra on Monday, on the theme: “Deepening Public Trust and confidence in Justice Delivery”.

The event, attended by the judiciary and its stakeholders, mainly Police Officers, Prisons Officers and Lawyer, gave them the opportunity to look out for best practices in justice delivery and elicit a complete appraisal of existing systems and procedure for doing business.

The Chief Justice (CJ) noted that, the theme could not have come at an appropriate time when public trust and confidence in the judiciary had waned, adding that, the recent judicial scandal had also subjected the judiciary to grave questioning in the media and other fora.

She said the judiciary has a duty on continuing basis to identify where “they fell short, where we have stagnated or even regressed and fashion out remedial measures to reverse the negative image carved”.

Mrs Wood said it was important for the judiciary to work out mechanisms and strategies, which will in the short to medium term, as well as the long term perspective, shore up the image of the Judiciary.

This she noted was “not an impossible task”.

According to her, trust and respect could not be forced down the throat of the people, adding that, they remained a necessary by product of worthy conduct.

The Chief Justice said extraordinary powers invested in judges’ demands a correspondingly high standard of behaviour in and out of the court room.

“If we conduct ourselves worthily, we shall win and retain our people’s total esteem and trust,” she said.