OLIVER BARKER-Vormawor, was yesterday hit with a cost of GH¢10,000 by the Supreme Court for bringing before it what the court described as a frivolous and vexatious application for contempt.
The embattled lawyer who has been charged with treason felony had appeared before the court as counsel for Benjamin Darko of Democratic Accountability Lab.
He filed an application before the court seeking to commit the Director-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the GRA itself for contempt of court for going ahead to implement the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) when there was a pending application for interlocutory injunction against the implementation.
A seven-member panel of the court, presided over by Justice Nene Amegatcher, however, drew his attention to the fact that the application was defective and was not properly filed before the court.
The court said if he had done his research properly he would have noticed that a third party cannot institute a contempt proceeding against another person in a matter in which he is not one of the parties.
The court said the application did not measure up to the standard of filing originating motions before the highest court of the land, and subsequently directed him to withdraw the application and do his homework well.
Barker-Vormawor, however, insisted on moving the motion and he was allowed to do so. The court after listening to him said there was no need to call on the respondent to speak to the matters raised in the application.
The court in its ruling held that “we do not think we should call on counsel for the second respondent to respond, the applicant in our view has no locus in this matter to file this instant application to commit the Commissioner-General and the GRA for contempt of court.”
The court added that “apart from the fact that we cannot commit the Commissioner-General and the GRA as an institution for contempt, the application itself is defective and does not measure up to the practice of instituting originating notice of motions in this court. The application before us is frivolous and vexatious, we find no merit in it and dismiss same”.
The court subsequently awarded a cost of GH¢10,000 in favour of the respondent which is to be paid by Barker-Vormawor himself.
The contempt application was borne out of suit filed by Minority Leader of Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, and two other National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament challenging the approval of the E-Levy.
Mr. Iddrisu together with his colleague MPs, Mahama Ayariga and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, are contesting that Parliament did not have the required number to form a quorum to vote and approve the E-Levy.
They are there asking the Apex Court to set aside the decision of Parliament to vote and pass the bill with less than half of the MPs present at the time of forming the quorum.
The court has directed the parties in the matter to file their joint memorandum of issues within 14 days, and adjourned the case indefinitely.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak