Supreme Court shoots down two judges
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a writ instituted by two suspended justices of the High Court over a move by the Judicial Council to halve their salaries.
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The two, who are being investigated alongside others for allegedly taking bribes to influence their decisions, also questioned why all their allowances except rent should be suspended.
Justices Paul Dery and Gilbert Ayisi Addo invoked the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in their bid to have all their entitlements restored to them.
But the court in a terse ruling dismissed the suit and informed the parties it will give reasons for its decision seven days later.
The court was presided over by Mr Justice Julius Ansah with Justices Anin Yeboah, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, J. B. Akamba and A.A. Bennin as panel members.
The applicants and their lawyer, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, were spotted having a long conversation at the parking lot of the Supreme Court after the court’s decision.
Reacting to the court’s decision, Mr Addo told the Daily Graphic that “as of today, the court did not give any reason as to whether the matter was dismissed on its merit or on purely jurisdictional issue or any other reason.
“Until we receive the full reasoning of the court, we will be unable to state whether we agree or disagree with the decision of the court and what our next step will be
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“We will ultimately be able to advise our clients after we carefully study the decision.
“It is premature at this stage for us to give any opinion on the decision that was rendered today but rest assured that if the decision was not on the merit but on a technical issue such as jurisdiction or any such technical issue, our clients are likely to contest the issue at another forum,” Mr Addo added.
On camera
The two were allegedly caught on the famous Anas video allegedly taking bribes. The video was shown on September 22 and 23, 2015 at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).
The reliefs sought by the two include: “a declaration that the decision by the Judicial Council on December 16, 2015, and which is contained in letters dated January 8 and 11, 2016 purporting to place the Plaintiffs on half salary with immediate effect is inconsistent with and in contravention of Article 127(5) of the 1992 Constitution and, therefore, unconstitutional, null and void.”
Another relief sought by the two was a declaration that the December 16, 2016, decision by the Judicial Council and which is contained in letters dated January 8 and 11, 2016 purporting to suspend the payments to the Plaintiffs of all their allowances except rent is inconsistent with and in contravention of Article 127 (5) of the 1992 Constitution and therefore unconstitutional, null and void.
Article 127 (5) of the 992 Constitution says “the salary, allowances, privileges and rights in respect of leave of absence, gratuity, pension and other conditions of service of justices of the Superior Court or any judicial officer or other person exercising judicial power, shall not be varied to his disadvantage.”
The applicants had prayed the court to nullify the December 16, 2015 decision of the Judicial Council as well as the January 11, 2016 letters communicating the decision to them.
Background
The Judicial Service was rocked in what might go down the history of Ghana as the biggest scandal to hit the judiciary when 32 judges and magistrates and more than 100 staff of the Judicial Service were caught on tape receiving bribes from undercover ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye PI team.