Supreme Court to rule on Anane

Accra, July 31 - The Supreme Court will on November 14 rule on an appeal filed by the Commission on Human Rights an Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) against a ruling by an Accra Fast Track High Court that quashed CHRAJ's ruling allegations against former Road Transport Minister, Dr. Richard Anane.

The Fast Track High Court granted a Review Application brought before it by Dr Anane, saying CHRAJ ought to have based its investigations into the allegations on a formal complaint. The Court, presided over by Mr. Justice Baffoe Bonnie, an Appeal Court Judge with an additional responsibility on the matter as a High Court Judge, held that by conducting its own investigations against the former Minister without a complaint emanating from any complainant, CHRAJ was arrogating to itself constitutional mandate outside its jurisdiction.

The Court stated that by so doing, CHRAJ was behaving like the proverbial octopus, "stretching its tentacles to look for complaints to investigate," which act would be a "recipe for chaos".

It pointed out that even though it was an indisputable fact that CHRAJ was clothed with the Constitutional mandate to investigate allegations, there were constitutional provisions that made the Commission an inferior investigative body with limited jurisdiction, and therefore had to work within the confines of the law.

The Court therefore said, by carrying out its own investigation into the matter without being petitioned by any identifiable complainant, CHRAJ was wrongfully arrogating to itself powers it did not have.

It consequently ruled that the Commission's decision in respect of its investigations against Dr Anane "was null and void", and therefore quashed it.