Criminal Procedures to be reviewed

Accra, Jan 10, GNA- The country's criminal procedures would reviewed soon, to ensure the expeditious delivery of justice, Mr Justice George Kingsley Acquah, Chief Justice, made this disclosure in Accra on Monday.

To this end, he said, a committee would be set up to look at the entire criminal procedure code, and carry out the necessary amendments.

Mr Justice Acquah gave this assurance when he spoke to newsmen shortly after the formal opening of a training workshop on High Court (civil procedures) rules for Circuit, High and Appeal court judges.

The High Court Rules, (Civil Procedures), otherwise known as Constitutional Instruments (CIs), were drafted by a Committee chaired by the Chief Justice.

Passed by the just-ended Parliament, the CIs came into force on Monday, January 3, this year.

Mr Justice Acquah pledged the determination of the Judicial Service to ensure that archaic court rules were replaced to ensure that justice was dispensed fairly and impartially to restore public confidence in the judicial system.

He admitted that those obsolete rules contributed immensely to delays in the dispensation of justice.

Justice Acquah said everything possible would be done to get rid of all the bottlenecks.

He asked the workshop participants not to entertain frivolous, vexatious and unmeritorious actions, brought before them. The three-day workshop is being organised by the Judicial Training Institute with funding from the United Nations Development Programme, through the National Governance Programme.

It would equip the 120 judges with general knowledge of the usage of the High Court Rules, and help the participants selected from the southern sector of the country to improve on their skills in Case Management for the expeditious hearing of cases.

The workshop would also help them to improve on their skills in Decision-making and Judgment Writing.