The Supreme Court has affirmed the constitutionality of the process that led to the removal of former Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, unanimously dismissing all consolidated suits challenging the proceedings.
The decision effectively brings to a close another major legal battle over one of Ghana’s most significant judicial controversies and reinforces the legality of the constitutional mechanisms governing the removal of a Chief Justice.
The consolidated suits were filed by Vincent Ekow Assafuah, Atta Quartey, former Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, and the Centre for Citizenship, Constitutional and Electoral Systems (CENCES), all of whom questioned various aspects of the constitutional process that culminated in her dismissal.
By unanimously rejecting the applications, the apex court has endorsed the constitutional steps taken during the removal proceedings initiated after petitions were filed against the former Chief Justice.
The ruling follows an earlier decision by the same court striking out a review application filed by Justice Torkornoo, in which she sought to revisit the dismissal of her application for an interlocutory injunction aimed at halting the work of the presidential committee investigating the petitions against her.
A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court, chaired by Justice Hafisata Amaleboba, held that the review application was procedurally defective because former Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame had not been formally discharged as counsel before a new legal team filed the application.
The court subsequently granted leave for the application to be withdrawn after counsel for Justice Torkornoo, Kwabena Adu Kusi, requested permission to do so. Deputy Attorney-General Dr Justice Srem-Sai indicated that the state had no objection, leading the court to strike out the application as withdrawn.
Justice Torkornoo had sought to stop the committee’s proceedings pending the determination of a substantive constitutional challenge. However, President John Dramani Mahama later accepted the committee’s recommendations and removed her from office after it found grounds of stated misbehaviour had been established.
The committee cited unlawful expenditure of public funds relating to private foreign travel involving members of her family, interference in judicial appointments and abuse of administrative authority within the Judicial Service.
Justice Torkornoo has consistently denied the allegations, maintaining that the accusations were baseless and politically motivated.
Her removal marked a historic milestone as she became the first sitting Chief Justice in Ghana to be investigated and removed through the constitutional process outlined in the 1992 Constitution.
With the latest unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court has now consistently declined to halt or invalidate the removal process, strengthening the legal standing of the constitutional procedures governing the accountability of holders of the country’s highest judicial office.
