Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame has strongly opposed Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin’s application to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that prevented him from declaring four parliamentary seats vacant.
Presenting his arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, October 30, Dame criticized the Speaker’s application as “totally offensive to all rules and procedures” within Ghana’s legal framework.
Dame defended the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction, asserting that Ghana’s Constitution explicitly grants the judiciary authority to conduct judicial review.
He stressed that the court’s oversight extends to decisions by any state institution or official, ensuring that even the highest offices are accountable under the law.
Referring to Articles 2(1) and 130(1) of the Constitution, Dame underscored that the Supreme Court’s mandate to review decisions is absolute and applicable to all, emphasizing that this constitutional power serves as a critical check within Ghana’s governance structure.
“The Supreme Court’s judiciary review powers pursuant to Articles 2(1) and 130 (1), except any authority, the institution of state or any individual in the country is exempt from it and even the president is subject to a Supreme Court review under the constitution and the constitution spells out the consequences for failure to obey decisions and orders of the Supreme Court in Article 2(4).
“The powers of the court cannot be questioned at all and it is for this reason that the Supreme Court stated clearly that there is no such thing as political person. The court can call into question any act or omission of any person at all in so far as it violates the constitution and so the contention by the First Defendant that it was administrative of the Speaker, I will ask, ‘and so what?’
Dame’s argument also refuted the contention that the Supreme Court overstepped its boundaries by intervening in what Speaker Bagbin considered an administrative matter within Parliament.
Dame dismissed this notion, stating that no administrative decision within any government institution is immune from judicial scrutiny if it is found to contravene the Constitution.
“Any administrative decision of a person or authority which comes in contravention of the constitution is amenable to the course of judiciary review powers and the application before you is totally offensive to all rules and procedures of this court and unknown to the laws of this court and must be dismissed.”
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