We Have Been Vindicated - Tsatsu

The Former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation Tsatsu Tsikata says the reasons assigned by the five Supreme Court Justices who upheld his application to declare the fast track courts unconstitutional has vindicated his position and that of his lawyer. The Justices, who declared the fast track courts illegal on February 28, said in their reasoning that the guidelines regulating the fast track courts made it wrong to use them to try criminal cases.

They contended that the fast track courts could only prosecute criminal cases with Parliamentary approval.

The four who dissented however argued that the Chief Justice had the discretionary powers to create divisions of the High Court under Section 139 (3) of the constitution without any act of Parliament. Mr. Tsikata told JOY FM that the ruling should serve as a lesson to the Chief Justice and Attorney General.

“All the Justices of the Supreme Court who voted for the majority made it clear that the Attorney General’s so called guidelines for the fast track court docket management did not represent a legal basis for the establishment of a court. I think they made it clear that whatever the Chief Justice is going to do it has to be done in accordance with the constitution.

Nobody can establish rules of a so-called court without going through constitutional processes,” Mr Tsikata noted. Meanwhile the Attorney General, Nana Akuffo Addo says the reasons given by the Supreme Court are not conclusive and he will therefore go ahead to file for a review of the judgement.