Dominic Ayine on how Supreme Court can deal with caseloads

It is an open secret that the Supreme Court of Ghana is challenged and constrained in terms of the number of Justices and the caseloads that are filed each year.

The Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, is on record to have affirmed this last year when she officially wrote to the former President about the need to increase the number of Justices to bolster the ability and capacity of the Court to deal with the numerous cases.

When the nominee for Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, appeared before Parliament’s Appointments Committee last Monday, he shared some insightful perspectives on how to deal with the Supreme Court’s caseload and bolster its capacity.

First, he said that Ghana’s Supreme Court could adopt an efficient mechanism for deciding cases like that of the United States Federal Supreme Court by putting a certain threshold which would make it look at cases filed and decide whether they qualified to be listed.

Second, Dr Ayine mentioned that Ghana’s Supreme Court could look at creating specialised panels to be placed in specialised divisions to look at cases per their subject matter expertise to propel efficiency and timely delivery.

The nominee expressed his disagreement, however, with a bill presented by the former Attorney-General aimed at reforming Ghana’s criminal justice system.

Strengthening anti-corruption agencies 

When quizzed, he hinted at the establishment of a whistle-blower agency in every district with a hotline assigned to them to be used to report information about corruption intimating that anti-corruption institutions should not only be centred in Accra.