Suit against Torkornoo’s removal: Court denies oral application for withdrawal
The High Court in Accra has prevented lawyers of former Chief Justice Getrude Torkornoo from making an oral application to withdraw the case challenging Shining Stars’ petition to remove her.
The writ she sought to withdraw was challenging the petition for her removal on the grounds that Shining Stars is not a registered entity.
During a virtual hearing yesterday the Deputy Attorney-General, Dr Justice Srem Sai, sought leave of the court to move a motion to strike out the case.
In a bid to move the motion, the lawyer for the former CJ, Kwabena Adu-Kusi, indicated to the court that he had received instructions from his client to withdraw the application.
“My instructions are to withdraw the substantive application for judicial review application filed on June 23, 2025.
We will pray for leave to withdraw the application accordingly, in which case the application to strike out the motion for judicial review would not be necessary,” counsel said.
But the deputy A-G told the court that he was disappointed in the manner in which counsel for the CJ was moving his motion to withdraw the case.
“We are embarrassed by the applicant’s move this morning, mainly because the proper cause of action for a person who has filed an originating process to take when he or she wishes to discontinue is to file a notice of discontinuance and not show up in court and seek orally to pray the court for leave to withdraw.
More so, when that party has had ample time to take that decision,” he said, praying for a short adjournment to ensure that lawyers for the former CJ complied with the rules of court.
Justice Nyadu-Nyantei then ordered the lawyer for the former Chief Justice to file the appropriate processes to discontinue their case and adjourned the case indefinitely.
The plaintiff filed a fresh action at the High Court seeking a declaration that Shining Stars does not exist in law.
The organisation is behind one of the petitions seeking the removal of the Chief Justice. Lawyers for the former Chief Justice were of the opinion that there are no records showing the existence of any such organisation.
In the suit, the former CJ was praying the High Court to declare that Shinning Stars of Ghana was non-existent in law or fact.
Former Justice Torkornoo also wanted the High Court to declare as “void” the petition filed by The Shinning Stars of Ghana to the President on February 14, 2025.
“A declaration that the petition made to the President and dated February 14 2025, allegedly authored by a group called The Shinning Stars of Ghana, is void on account of the fact that The Shinning Stars of Ghana does not exist in law or fact,” she averred in the suit.
