Judicial Service to use legal vacation clear backlog

Accra, Aug. 7 GNA - The Judiciary Service of Ghana (JSG) on Thursday announced that it was introducing an exercise during this legal vacation to deal with serious criminal offences.

The programme, which runs from August 11 to 29, is intended to

dispose of the backlog of specified criminal cases involving

robbery, narcotics and other cases. A statement signed by Mr Alex B. Poku-Acheampong, Judicial

Secretary, said three selected High Court judges would sit at the

High Court, three selected other High Court judges would sit as

additional Circuit Court judges, while three Appeal Court judges

would also sit as additional High Court judges at the Cocoa Affairs

Courts. The statement said all the judges would sit in August except one

judge who would sit in September. Sitting will be between 0900 and

1400 hours. It said under the Rules of Court procedure, when witnesses

failed to turn up after a number of adjournments, the courts were

bound to strike out the cases for want of warrant of prosecution. The statement said the Judicial Service of Ghana for the past

year had taken a number of steps to dispose of the backlog of cases

pending in the law courts. It noted that the Chief Justice in May this year set up five special

courts at the High Court level with the mandate to sit daily and deal

solely with land-related issues. It said during the sitting of the five courts, which lasted for five

days, 521 cases were disposed of under Registrar's Summons.