Court Proceedings Postponed for Lack of Stationery

In spite of the sacrifices being made by some judges and magistrates to dispose of as many cases as possible in the courts, their efforts are being hampered by an acute shortage of stationery at the courts of their jurisdiction.

Several cases in some courts are constantly postponed for lack of stationery even though both accused persons and plaintiffs and their counsels are always present to argue out their case.

Quite recently, a court in Accra stopped proceedings because there was no stationery.

The story at Cape Coast is no different became the Regional Judiciary Office has no single ream of typewriting papers at the stores.

The Independent can confidently confirm that at Agona Swedru, ruled foolscap sheets of paper pulled out of old books are now being used by the Clarks at the court.

If ordinary stationery cannot be provided for the existing courts, then the possibility of establishing new Fast Track Courts in the regions and districts is very much questionable.

Apart from the stationery, the courts are stocked with twelfth century typewriters, most of which have not seen any maintenance for several years, thus making typing very unpleasant at the courts and therefore leave most of the judgment of proceedings untyped.

The philosophy that a worker eats out of his labour cannot in anyway be related to workers in the courts because inspite of the huge internally generated funds being made by the courts through fines, they are not given subsidies to support their financial stand.

Also, even though the tribunal system has been abolished, most of the newly instituted district magistrate courts are still using materials bearing the inscriptions and this should be cheeked with all seriousness.

Most observers believe that lack of these logistics to facilitate work at the courts have contributed to the mess that has allegedly been created there and until something positive is done to salvage the situation justice at the courts cannot be complete.