Dr. Dominic Ayine
The Office of the Attorney General (AG) has filed an application asking the Supreme Court to grant it leave to file out of time, a response to a writ filed by Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, challenging the processes regarding the petitions that resulted in the removal of Justice Gertrude Torkornoo as Chief Justice.
The MP had sued the government through the Attorney General in April 2025, arguing that upon a true and proper interpretation of articles 146(1), (2), (4), (6) and (7), 23, 57(3) and 296 of the Constitution, the President is mandated to notify the Chief Justice as well as obtain a response from her before referring the petition to the Council of State or commencing the consultation process.
He contends that a failure by the President to furnish the Chief Justice with copies of the petition seeking her removal, and she responding to the allegations made against her before the initiation of the consultation process with the Council of State violates Article 146(6) of the 1992 Constitution.
In spite of the writ being filed in April 2025, the Attorney General has not filed a statement of defence, six months after his office had been served with the writ.
While the Attorney General was waiting to file a defence, a five-member committee chaired by Justice Gabriel Pwamang, a Justice of the Supreme Court, heard one of the petitions and recommended that Justice Torkornoo be removed from office.
The President, on September 1, 2025, enforced the recommendation and removed Justice Torkornoo from office as Chief Justice as well as a Justice of the Supreme Court.
The Attorney General has now filed an application asking for leave to file a defence out of time, indicating that the delay was due to “administrative procedures and arrangements attendant to the 2025 presidential transition and the subsequent compulsory retirement of the Solicitor-General.”
The application further indicates that the delay in preparing and filing the statement of defence was neither deliberate nor in bad faith.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak