Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, often known as Kwaku Azar, a fellow at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has criticized the Supreme Court for taking too long to decide on important issues.
He recommended that the Supreme Court set up an effective case management system so that it could swiftly decide matters that are of public concern.
Kwaku Azar made the comment, following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s order compelling former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo to take an extended leave of absence.
The Presidency ordered Domelevo to take 169 working days of accumulated leave in 2020. However, the Supreme Court declared the direction to be unlawful in its decision on May 31.
In response, Kwaku Azar argued that some cases would lose their time value if the Supreme Court did not render a decision in a timely way.
He claimed that the Supreme Court occasionally violates the Constitution because it does not interpret or apply the law in accordance with its intended purposes. He hoped that the Supreme Court would have a sophisticated case management system that would enable it to decide cases without depriving them of their time value.
“These cases are time-sensitive, if you don’t decide timely enough, then who cares what you say?”, the legal crusader advocated.
“I initiated the first suit in the Domelevo’s case and I was stunned. Because I asked for an injunction, not only did they deny the injunction, on the very day that I was asking for injunction, the Supreme court was hearing a different case from the deputy auditor general. I withdrew the case, I felt the court was not serious about its responsibilities.”
Kwaku Azar
He claimed that if someone is scheduled to get a death sentence on June 30 and goes to the Supreme Court on June 15 to request that the matter be heard by the court, it will be absolutely pointless.
“And the Supreme Court doesn’t hear the case, but the guy is executed on June 30. What will be the point of coming to tell us next year that the execution was unlawful?”, he questioned.
Gakye-Quayson’s Case Worst So Far
The Supreme Court’s decision declaring James Gyakye Quayson’s election as the Member of Parliament for Assin North null and unlawful was dubbed as the worst judgment by Kwaku Azar.
In its decision, the Supreme Court ordered Parliament to remove Mr. Quayson’s name from its files. Later, the seat was declared empty by Parliament, clearing the way for an election in Assin North on June 27.
The Supreme Court determined that Mr. Quayson lacked the necessary qualifications to run in the Assin North Constituency for the 2020 parliamentary elections on October 9, 2020.
According to Kwaku Azar, the Supreme Court’s decision is odd and the case is rife with flaws.
“Of all the Ghanaian cases I have seen, this one stands out as almost the worst, because when you read the case, there is a plethora of errors. From misinterpreting the Constitution to shredding statues to inserting timelines where there are no timelines.
“It’s almost as if the court decided we are going to remove this guy [Quayson] for whatever reason. And we don’t care how many laws we break or how many rules we violate. We are going to do it anyway.”
Kwaku Azar
He clarified that there are many reasons why a person may be obligated to a nation, and citizenship is one of them.
“It’s almost like me saying that allegiance and citizenship are inexplicably tied, so when the president swears the oath of allegiance, he’s swearing the oath of citizenship. That is completely bizarre. I have never heard such strange reasoning.”
Kwaku Azar
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