The Supreme Court has ruled that the jurisdiction of the Winneba high court was wrongly invoked in the matter brought before it by a private citizen, Supi Kofi Kwayera, who claimed that the mandate of the governing council of the University of Education Winneba (UEW) had expired in November 2013 and that its existence must be declared illegal.
According to the apex court, the Winneba high court, presided over by Justice George Ato Mills-Graves, wrongly assumed jurisdiction when it heard the matter.
A panel of five justices comprising Justice Julius Ansah (presiding), Sophia Adinyira, Anin Yeboah, Yaw Appau and Gabriel Pwamang, in its ruling, held that the high court judge was clearly in error.
They judges maintained that in instances where the jurisdiction of a court is wrongly evoked, it is expected to take adequate steps to correct the errors before going ahead to hear the matter, irrespective of the importance of the case.
They also ruled that the private citizen has no locus in matters of the university and could therefore only invoke the jurisdiction of the court through a writ of summons instead of an originating summons.
It therefore averred that the applicant could reapply through a writ of summons if he so wished.
The Supreme Court however, maintained that its ruling did not extend to some six top officials of the university who have been interdicted by the new governing council to pave way for investigation into an allegation of malfeasance levelled against them.
Background
The Winneba high court in July, 2017 ordered the Vice-Chancellor of UEW, Professor Mawutor Avokeh, and the institution’s finance officer to step aside until a case brought against them and the university’s governing council had been determined.
The EUW chapter of the University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTAG) later filed a writ of certiorari at the Supreme Court, praying it to set aside the order of the Winneba high court.
The lecturers argued that the high court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case filed at the high court; and also the plaintiff had locus in the matters of the university.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling, the university’s Vice-Chancellor Prof. and five other top officials had been ordered by the new governing council to step aside as investigations into alleged malfeasance against them continued.
The other five are, Dr. Theophilus Senyo Ackordie, Finance Officer; Frank Owusu Boateng, Deputy Finance Officer; Sena Duke, Internal Auditor; Mary Dzimey, Acting Head of Procurement and Ing. Daniel Tetteh, Acting Deputy Director of Works and Physical Development.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak