NDC Attacks Kufuor On Supreme Court Nominations

THE MINORITY National Democratic Congress (NDC) has reacted angrily to President J.A. Kufuor?s nomination of six persons from both the bench and the bar, for consideration as Supreme Court Justices.

Mr Kufuor in consultation with the Council of State and the Judicial Council, made one more nomination to the Appointments Committee of Parliament for vetting and/or approval as Justices of the Supreme Court.

The President who has already nominated five persons from both the bench, the bar and the academia to the Appointments Committee, yesterday added the sixth one in the person of Mrs. Georgina Theodore Woode, an Appeal Court Judge.

Incidentally, she happens to be the only female.

The rest are Justices S.A. Brobbey, A.G. Badoo (both Appeal Court Judges), Prof. Kofi Kumado, lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon and a former Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC).

The others are Dr. Seth Twum, an Accra legal practitioner; a solicitor and advocate to the Superior Court of Judicature, and Prof. Datey Baah of the academia.

Leading case in the public storm against President Kufuor?s recent batch of appointments to the Supreme Court, accuses him of attempting to pack the court. Reference has also been made to lack of Regional (ethnic) balance at the end of the day in the composition of the full Supreme Court Bench starting with the ethnic origins of the new six.

The principal advocate of ?balance? is the NDC?s General Secretary, Dr. Nii Josiah Aryeh. He claimed that quite a lot of the people being nominated to the Supreme Court are NPP sympathizers, he knew.

?The reason I would be circumspect is that the Supreme Court, unlike other courts, sit on very few cases?.

In an interview yesterday, Dr. Aryeh who?s also lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of Ghana, Legon, remarked that it is regrettable that the nominations do not ensure a balance thus failing to satisfy the ethnic quota regarding regional equation like it is stipulated in the 1992 Constitution. ?So there?s no need to escalate things by appointing a one-third or more members there?, he stated forcefully.

Strengthening his argument about the ethnic or regional balance, Dr. Aryeh referred to the US Constitution which according to him, provides that nominations to the Supreme Court should take consideration of the Black population.

Dr. Aryeh faulted the earlier appointments to the High Court for the same flaws. We are saying that they are out of order?, he said.

He posited that such appointments must be done in line with the directive principles of state policy as stated in the Constitution.

He contended that since the Supreme Court decides fewer cases, in his view therefore there?s no reason for us (Ghanaians) to rush to pack the court.

?We?re saying that replacing retiring judges with NPP sympathizers is very wrong.

We must try and even out things rather than bring imbalances into the system.

Asked whether the NDC Members of Parliament would sit in the vetting of the nominees to the Supreme Court, or it intended to boycott it, he replied that the party has not decided.

According to him, it doesn?t seem as though the Ghanaian Constitution gives the government the free hand to nominate any persons at all to the Supreme Court.

Expressing a contrary view, the President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA). Mr. Paul Adu Gyamfi, stated that the country?s Constitution will by law not be effective next October (2002) because the Supreme Court will not be properly constituted due to pending retirements.

It would remain only nine (9) Justices then.

According to him, the Constitution provides that there should be nine Justices of the Supreme Court plus the Chief Justice thus making 10 Justices in number. The Constitution does not provide for any upper limit in this case.

?I therefore don?t see anything wrong with the constitutional provision of the number of judges to be on the Supreme Court, he said.

He continued ?I think six (6) nominations have been made, if you add it to the current one, it would be 17. However, two of them are going out by October. It will therefore remain 15 Justices.

?Under normal conditions, five (5) Justices sit on a case at the Supreme Court but when there?s a review of any case decided by the Supreme Court then seven (7) Justices must sit.

He therefore discounted suggestions of any attempt to pack the court with the explanation that before the six persons were referred to the Council of State as the Constitution demands, they would have been proposed by the Judicial Council to the President for consideration as Supreme Court Judges.

?It?s therefore not an issue that a government in power can, as it were, control the Supreme Court, by packing it, more so when the Judges swear an oath to be honest and firm and do justice to all manner of persons.

He however admitted that in order not to give room for people to suspect the intensions of the government, it would have very well served the purpose, if the country?s Constitution had given an upper limit to the number of Justices to the Supreme Court.

At the same time, Mr. Adu Gyamfi drew attention of critics of the Judges to draw a line between the persons and the substance of their judgements and not blatantly think that the Judges are or were going to be influenced to take biased decisions.

He rejected the notion that the no upper limit opens the door for manipulation of the judiciary by the executive.

The GBA president proffered that looking at the composition of the Judicial Council which is made of the Chief Justice, as well as representatives from the courts, the GBA and four nominees by the President and a representative from the National House of Chiefs, 18 members in all, it is difficult to suggest that the President single-handedly makes those nominations to the Supreme Court. ?And it is this same Council (Judicial Council) which the President consults in addition to the Council of State to make nominations to the Supreme Court?, he explained. The GBA president said it therefore beats his imagination that some people are saying that the nominated six are meant to pack the Supreme Court.

Mr. Adu Gyamfi sought to put the Justice Afreh rumpus record straight. He said Justice Afreh?s name had been pending long before Kufuor became President, having been nominated by former President Rawlings before the 2000 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. In other words, he claimed that there?s a certain unfairness attached to those critics who label Mr. Justice Afreh?s appointment as a Kufuor design to get his way at the Supreme Court.