The Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG) is cautioning litigants to shun the verbal abuse on judges when they lose cases in court.
JUSAG President, Alex Nartey says some of the allegations leveled against judges by some disgruntled petitioners are unfair and unwarranted and needs to cease.
“I will only plead with Ghanaians to cooperate with the courts and stop the attempt to run the Judiciary down. So when you go to court and the case does not go your way, you don’t stand somewhere and create the impression as if the court has done something untoward”, he told Citi News.
“Once it’s litigation, one party will win the other party will lose whether government or party in opposition. So when losers of cases in court are talking, we need to be very objective in the assessment of some of the allegations they make”, Alex Nartey added.
Meanwhile, JUSAG is backing calls for the broadcast of court proceedings in the country.
There have been several appeals by some Ghanaians to the Judicial Service to start broadcasting proceedings of prominent constitutional, criminal and human right cases in the country, with the conviction that it will help deepen the country’s democracy, and engender public trust in the activities of the judiciary.
Alex Nartey, said allowing the broadcast of court proceedings will be a good move, but Ghanaians must be ready to bear the cost associated with it.
“Any call that our court hearings be telecast is a call in order, and we must all support it, but it comes at a cost at the instance of the taxpayer, and we must all be ready to pay for whatever gadgets we need for all the courts nationwide to be able to do a decent and efficient telecast,” he said.
He noted that the Judicial Service will need to procure modern equipment and recruit persons to operate them and this will be done across the country which will be a substantial investment.
He also added that the scope of what should be telecast must not be limited to only political matters but all other critical cases including domestic violence and child abuse.
In Ghana’s recent history, one of the most significant times of telecasting a court proceeding live was in 2013 when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by Nana Akufo-Addo, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and the late Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, petitioned the Supreme Court to challenge the results of the 2012 elections.
The Supreme Court okayed the call for a live broadcast with then Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Woode giving the directive that the hearing be telecast live by the nation’s broadcaster GTV and Radio Ghana.
The nine-panel judge adjudicating unanimously ruled in support of the directive for live coverage.
Justice Atuguba who gave the ruling stated that elections in the country come with a lot of tension and acrimony, and therefore it was proper for the proceedings to be telecast live on TV.
He said with the live telecast everyone would be offered the opportunity to see what is actually happening and know that the Court is hiding nothing from the public.
