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The Supreme Court will on February 4, 2016 determine whether or not the petition presented by investigative reporter and acting editor of the New Crusading Guide, Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Tiger Eye PI, a private investigative body to the President contravened Section 146 of the 1992 Constitution.
The high court judge wants the Supreme Court to declare that the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, acting through the judicial secretary’s press release dated September 11, 2015 in which he and 11 other judges were said to be involved in the bribery scandal, was in contravention of the 1992 Constitution.
The court, presided over by Justice Julius Ansah, gave the date after Dorothy Afriyie Ansah, Principal State Attorney and Nii Kpakpo Addo, counsel for Justice Dery appeared in court on Thursday.
Justice Uuter Peter Dery, an Accra High Court Judge, took the CJ, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Tiger Eye PI and the Attorney-General, to court after the release of an audiovisual material by Anas in which the judge and 11 other High Court Justices allegedly took bribes to pervert justice.
The judge, who said he took the action in his capacity as a citizen of Ghana and a justice of the Superior Court, is also seeking the original jurisdiction of the court and wants a declaration that the committee set up by the CJ to investigate the corruption scandal in the judiciary was null and void.
Justice Utter Peter Dery, who filed a suit at the Supreme Court over the dismissal of his contempt application against investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and four others, withdrew the matter on Wednesday.
This was after Justice Gertrude Torkonoo, the trial judge, who dismissed the contempt application, vacated her order after Justice Dery moved to the Supreme Court to stop her from hearing any matter concerning his case.
Mrs. Torkonoo vacated her order for the dismissal of the contempt and for the matter to be restored at the High Court.
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Counsel for Justice Dery could not cite an instance where the trial judge said something indicating bias or the likelihood of it, so she consequently withdrew the application seeking to stop Justice Torkonoo to recuse herself from hearing any matter involving the embattled judge.
The contempt suit against Starr FM, an Accra-based radio station, Crusading Guide, radio presenter, Nathaniel Adisi Anokye aka Bola Ray and ace investigative reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas, and Tiger Eye PI, an investigative company, was also struck out.
Other panel members in the case are Justices Kwasi Anin Yeboah, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie and A.K. Akamba and P. Benin.
Justice Dery is seeking a declaration that the publication of the petition on the massive corruption in the judiciary to the President by Tiger Eye Pi in the media contravened Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution.
He further wants the court to declare that Tiger Eye PI, acting through its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and acting editor of the New Crusading Guide Anas Aremeyaw Anas, in releasing the contents of the petition through publications in the Crusading Guide, his personal Face book page, as well as public audio visual recording of the documentary at the conference centre violated Article 146 of the constitution.
He consequently wants a perpetual injunction against anybody set up to deal with the matter from determining any issues arising out of the contents of the said petition.
Furthermore, he wants an injunction restraining Tiger Eye PI, its agents, assigns, servants, among others, from further publicizing, distributing or disseminating any proceedings against him.
By Fidelia Achama
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