The Chief Justice, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, has announced that the Judiciary will begin electronic filing, electronic authentication and electronic service of court processes from October 1, this year.
Speaking at a grand durbar to climax the Supreme Court's 150th anniversary celebration, Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie said the automation of court processes would start with the Supreme Court, before being extended to the Court of Appeal and the High Court.
The move, he said, was part of a broader e-justice agenda to make justice delivery more efficient and less encumbered by bureaucracy.
He added that a comprehensive review of the rules of court, the first in over two decades, had also been completed, with the revised rules to be laid before Parliament at the start of the next legal year in October.
The changes, he said, were meant to simplify practice, cut down on technicalities and reflect the realities of modern litigation.
The event was chaired by the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV, with the Vice-President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic A. Ayine, Justices of the Supreme Court, past and present, magistrates, heads of law faculties, chiefs, and Justices from Sierra Leone and Gambia, among other dignitaries.
The Chief Justice said the reforms were driven by the need to sustain public confidence in the Judiciary, which he described as an institution's most valuable but most fragile asset because it cannot be legislated or bought, only earned by successive generations of judges.
He said the Legal Education Act recently passed by Parliament would help strengthen legal training and better prepare lawyers and judges for a justice system responding to technological and commercial change.
He called on all stakeholders to regard the reforms as a national undertaking.
"The justice system is part of a larger constitutional architecture. Its effectiveness depends not only upon just Laws, but upon the collective commitment of all who bear responsibility for the governance of our republic.
'That is why meaningful reform must always be understood as a national undertaking," he added.
Strengthening justice sector
Professor Opoku-Agyemang said the government regarded the strengthening of the justice sector as an essential investment in the country's democratic future, describing confident institutions as the foundation of a confident democracy.
She said the government was studying the recommendations of the Constitution Review Committee, which had since submitted its report to the President, and would issue a position paper setting out its stance.
She said the constitutional reforms would be pursued in partnership with the Judiciary, Parliament, academia and civil society, with the aim of strengthening public confidence and deepening democratic accountability.
Dr Ayine described the relationship between his office and the Judiciary as a fraternal one built on a shared commitment to the rule of law and the Constitution, saying that when state lawyers appeared before the courts, they did so as officers of justice testing arguments, not as adversaries seeking victory.
He stated that Article 130 of the 1992 Constitution vested the Supreme Court with exclusive jurisdiction to interpret and enforce the Constitution, which he described as a deliberate national decision to have certain questions settled by law and precedent rather than by politics alone.
He pledged the Attorney-General’s Office's support for the court's ongoing digital transformation, including digital filing and virtual hearings.
In his remarks, Togbe Afede XIV called for a critical look at how Supreme Court justices were appointed, and for the introduction of an upper limit on the number of justices, warning that the current arrangement left room for numbers to be increased to serve political ends.
He said the Supreme Court, while final in its decisions, was not infallible, and therefore urged justices to be open to revisiting past interpretations of the law.
Togbe Afede XIV also raised concerns about the cost of accessing justice, describing the legal profession as profit-driven in a way that shut out many citizens.
He, therefore, called for measures to remove financial barriers to justice delivery.
