Abolish justices sitting as additional judges - Justice Adjei advocates at vetting

A Supreme Court nominee, Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei, has called for the abolition of the practice where judges of a superior court are asked to sit as additional judges in a lower court.

Answering questions before Parliament’s Appointments Committee yesterday, he said that  was not practised in any country.

“We have enough High Court judges why is it that there is a case to be tried by a High Court judge then you ask a Court of Appeal judge to go and sit?

We have enough Circuit Court judges, why is it that if there is a case before the court we ask a High Court judge to go and sit as an additional Circuit Court judge?” he asked quizzically.

Human influence

Justice Adjei said that could lead to human influences and, therefore, must be curbed.

“I have examined all the constitutions in Africa and I haven’t seen in any country where they ask judges to go and sit in another court as additional,” he said.

The Supreme Court nominee explained that when a judge from a higher court went down to sit on a matter, the impression was that “Why can’t we get a judge from that court, but we bring a judge from another court?”

The mindset about that alone, Justice Adjei said, spoke volumes as people would begin to talk about issues of bias.

“So, to me, that one should be abolished, it is my opinion. Because of the constitutional analysis that I have made, I think it should be abolished,” Justice Adjei stated.

Chief Justice

Asked by the Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, whether it was desirable in the separation of powers to make the head of the judiciary also become the head of the executive, the Supreme Court nominee said it was not advisable to use the Chief Justice to exercise executive powers, stressing, “It’s not advisable.”

He said if it was Parliament, there was nothing wrong with that since they were politicians and were voted for and so could act, but where the Chief Justice, who was supposed to be independent and impartial, was to go and perform an executive function “it would violate every principle of the rule of law”.

When the Deputy Minority Leader, Patricia Appiagyei, asked Sir Adjei to share his views on legal education with the monopoly of the Ghana School of Law (GSL) in the training of lawyers, he said legal education in the country was confronted with multiple issues.

Initially, Justice Adjei said it was only the GSL that did that but with the proliferation of universities offering legal education beyond the traditional University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), gaining admission to the GSL had become more difficult.

That, he said, had prompted the decision to have two campuses of the GSL at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and KNUST.

“Still we have an issue, the issue about admission,” he said, adding that  though last year the School of Law  tried to admit about 1,400 students, that number was still far below the number of students completing law studies at the faculties.

President Mahama

In April this year, President John Dramani Mahama nominated seven Justices of the Court of Appeal for consideration for appointment to the Supreme Court.

They are Justices Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei, Gabriel Simon Suurbaareh, Senyo Dzamefe, Kweku Tawiah Ackah-Boafo, Philip Bright Mensah, Janpere Bartels-Kodwo and Hafisata Ameleboba.

The seven were nominated by President Mahama per Article 144(2) of the 1992 Constitution.