Date-Bah: Inconsistent Supreme Court panels raise anxiety

Retired Supreme Court Judge, Prof Samuel Date-Bah, says consistency in the number of judges empaneled to sit on cases at the Supreme Court, will fritter off suspicions and anxiety with regards to judgments from the apex Court.

“…If there is a certain consistency, that itself, helps us see that justice is being done; because in what instances is it left to the discretion of the Chief Justice to empanel a five-member or a seven-member of a nine-member Court”, Prof Date-Bah argued.

According to him, the inconsistency in the number of Justices empaneled on cases since the 1992 Constitution came into force, leaves much to be desired.

“In the first five years after the 1992 Constitution came into effect, most of the Supreme Court case and invariably, most of the Constitutional cases were heard by panels of five. Subsequently we’ve had constitutional cases with panels of seven and we’ve also had nine-member panels and it is not only the kinds of Judges you have sitting on the case; it is also the number of judges who sit on a case who can make a difference…”.

Prof Date-Bah, who was a discussant at a forum on “understanding the operations and mandate of the Supreme Court in Ghana’s constitutional democracy” organised by the Ghana Institute of Management and Professional Administration (GIMPA) also said delaying the reasoning for a judgment rather than providing those reasons coterminously with the delivery of judgment, creates “anxiety” and suspicions.

“…Judgments are given, dispositions are announced, orders are made and reasons follow weeks later. That is permissible but it can create some anxiety in the public because of the possibility of ex-post facto rationalisation. Why did you give this judgment? If there is a requirement for reasons to be delivered at the same time that a judgment is delivered, it addresses that”, Prof Date-Bah proposed.

He said the reasons “need not be read out but they will have to be deposited in Court”.

Prof Date-Bah noted that: “If we can have an arrangement where reasons are delivered with judgments and judgments are filed before the reasons are given”, it will help matters.

Other discussants at the forum were Asokore Mampong Paramount Chief Nana Dr SKB Asante; Prof P. E. Bondzi-Simpson, Dean of the faculty of law at the University of Cape Coast; Ghana Bar Association President, Nene Amegatcher and former Attorney General and Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Ghartey.