The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed concerns over what it describes as judicial bias in the scheduling of political cases by the Supreme Court.
The party has taken issue with the Chief Justice’s decision to prioritise the hearing of a case filed by the MP for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, over an earlier case filed by Richard Dela Sky against the anti-gay bill.
According to the NDC, the case filed by Richard Dela Sky challenging the constitutionality of the Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2024, should have been heard first, as it was filed two weeks before Dafeamekpor’s case, which questions the constitutionality of recent ministerial nominations.
It can be recalled that Richard Dela Sky filed his writ of summons in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2024, on March 5, 2024, whereas the South Dayi MP filed his writ of summons on March 18, 2024, challenging the constitutionality of the latest ministerial nominations by the president.
This, according to the NDC, is two weeks clear, yet, the court has scheduled to hear the latter first.
In a statement, the General Secretary of the party, Fifi Kwetey, argued that the scheduling order of the two cases undermines the principle of judicial independence and suggests a potential bias towards the government.
“Given the recent political deadlock that these two legal suits have created between the Executive arm and the Legislative arm of government, one would have expected that the date of filing of the cases would have informed the timing of their hearing by the apex Court.
“Yet, for some strange reasons, the case of Hon. Rockson Dafeamekpor which was last in time to be filed, has been hurriedly listed for hearing, while that of Richard Dela Sky which predated the Dafeamekpor case by two weeks, has not been listed for hearing at all. This is in spite of the fact that no application for abridgement of time has been filed by any of the parties in the Dafeamekpor case,” he stated.
Fifi Kwetey further alleged that the delay is a ploy by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, to keep the anti-gay bill on the shelves.
“It’s quite apparent, that this is a ploy by the Chief Justice to fast-track the determination of the suit filed by Hon. Rockson Dafeamekpor, while the determination of the Richard Dela Sky suit is deliberately and unduly delayed, to enable the President to shelve the crucial Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill that has been passed by Parliament.
“The arbitrary exercise of administrative discretion by the Chief Justice, particularly in the scheduling of cases in the Supreme Court, goes to fortify the high perception of bias on the part of the judiciary. Such judicial manipulations go to confirm the growing public perception that the current Chief Justice is a pliant accomplice and abettor of the misrule of the despotic Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government,” the statement added.
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