Chief Justice urged to empanel Supreme Court

...to determine Bimpong-Buta's case

Accra, Oct. 20, GNA - The Chief Justice has been called upon to empanel the Supreme Court to determine an interlocutory injunction that would enforce the 1992 Constitution and Rule of Law to sustain democratic governance or resign.

Mr S.Y. Bimpong-Buta, who insists that he is still the Substantive Director of Legal Education and Director of the Ghana School of Law, made the call in a five-point complaint he addressed to the Head of the Complaints Unit of the Judicial Service.

The complaint, which is in the form of a petition, was copied to the Office of the President, Speaker of Parliament, Chairman of the Council of State; Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice and the Ghana News Agency.

The petition accused the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Kingsley Acquah of unconstitutional and unjustifiable refusal; omission or delay to perform his constitutional duty to list and empanel the Supreme Court to hear and determine his application for interlocutory injunction he filed on June 27.

He said the application is aimed at enforcing the 1992 Constitution and the Rule of Law and for the sustenance of democratic governance in the country.

Mr Bimpong-Buta in a case against the General Legal Council, Mr Kwaku Ansa-Asare and Mr M.N. Okyere, both of the Ghana Law School, and the Attorney- General says he is still the substantive Director of the School.

He asserts that his claim raises issues of constitutional interpretation and enforcement of extreme public interest, saying that the decision by the Supreme Court would clarify the law relating to the accrued rights of public servants, who were at post immediately before the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution and were thus entitled to retire at the age, which by law they should retire before the coming into force of the Constitution.

Mr Bimpong-Buta said the delay in empanelling the Court was calculated to buy time, since he would reach the statutory retiring age of 65 years by June 4, 2005.

He said the case raises a fundamental question: Whether under a constitutional democracy, the Chief Justice, as the head of the Judiciary, could refuse; delay or fail to exercise his constitutional duty of empanelling the Supreme Court expeditiously, in a constitutional matter brought before it for interpretation and enforcement of the 1992 Constitution?

Mr E.A. Owusu-Ansah, Judicial Secretary, told the Ghana News Agency, that the case would soon be listed for hearing since the courts have just resumed sitting after the legal vacation.