By Joyce Danso
Accra, May 21, GNA – Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo has filed an application at the Supreme Court to restrain the committee probing petitions for her removal from office.
The injunction application, filed on May 21, 2025, names the Attorney-General and members of the committee as respondents.
Justice Torkornoo is seeking 15 reliefs, including the setting aside of the presidential warrant suspending her from office, dated April 22, 2025.
The application, sighted by the Ghana News Agency, seeks an order from the apex court to restrain the committee established by the President to inquire into three petitions against her.
She is also seeking an order against Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, chair of the committee, and members Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu, Daniel Yaw Domelovo, Major Flora Bazwaanura Dalugo, and Professor James Sefah Dzisah, from proceeding with the inquiry under Article 146(6), as outlined in the President’s letter dated April 22, 2025.
The Chief Justice is seeking a declaration that, “upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 17(1) and (2), 19(13) and (14), 23, 146(7) and (8), 28(1) and 295(1) of the Constitution, the right of a Chief Justice to a public hearing and all the incidents of fair hearing may only be excluded in the matter of public morality, public safety, or public order.”
She is also asking the court to interpret Articles 146(1), (2), (4), 125(3) and (4), 127(1) and (2), and 296 of the Constitution to establish that the President’s determination of a prima facie case, as conveyed in the April 22, 2025 letter along with her suspension, “constituted an unjustified attempt to remove her as the head of Ghana’s Judiciary” and “an undue infringement on the independence of the Judiciary.”
The Chief Justice contends that the failure to serve her with a reasoned prima facie determination before constituting the committee violated her right to a fair hearing and substantive justice.
She argued this rendered the proceedings “null and void.”
Additionally, she seeks a declaration that “upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 146(1), (2), (4), 23 and 296 of the Constitution, and Sections 1, 2, and 4 of the Oaths Act,” the three defendants—Domelovo, Major Dalugo, and Prof. Dzisah—“are not qualified to undertake the functions entrusted on them as members of the committee set by the President to inquire into the petitions against the Plaintiff.”
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey