Retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Atuguba, has criticised the New Patriotic Party’s assertion that the reconstitution of the panel that tried the Vincent Assafuah case led to the 3-2 decision against him, describing it as pretentious and blatantly unacceptable.
He chided the party’s misconstrued perception of the Judiciary, which causes them to label a majority-dissenting panel as mischievous while praising unanimous decisions in their favour.
The Supreme Court, in a 3-2 majority decision, dismissed the Old Tafo MP’s suit challenging the suspension of the Chief Justice by the President. The suit had called for a reinstatement, arguing that if the President failed to notify the Chief Justice for her response before forwarding the petitions to the Council of State for the establishment of a prima facie case, it was unconstitutional.
Earlier that day, a 5-0 unanimous decision had quashed the objection by Attorney General Godfred Dame, who sought to exclude the Acting Chief Justice, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, from the bench, citing personal benefits
Atuguba questioned the NPP’s contention regarding these unanimous decisions and labeled their objections to the reconstitution of the panel, which they believe culminated in the 3-2 decision a pretentious and unacceptable.
“The impression that the panel constituted by CJ Torkornoo gives unanimous decision, that is justice,if it is valid, it is pretentious and unacceptable,” Atuguba stated.
Vincent Assafuah, the plaintiff in the matter, asserted that had the original panel sat on the May 6 ruling, the 3-2 majority decision would not have occurred.
His comments came after the Acting Chief Justice, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, and Justices Amadu Tanko and Yonny Kulendi—who were added to the panel after its reconstitution—ruled to dismiss the case.
The reconstitution saw Acting Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie adding himself as presiding judge along with Justice Amadu Tanko and Justice Yonny Kulendi, all new justiced whose decision ended as majority I the case leading it to to dismissed.
Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie removed Justices Samuel Asiedu, Yaw Asare, and Richard Agyei Frimpong from from initial panel. However, Justices Henrietta Mensah Bonsu and Ernest Gaewu, members of the initial panel, remained on the reconstituted one.