Here is why Ghana's Supreme Court can run with only 7 judges – Kwaku Azar explains

A US-based Ghanaian lawyer and scholar, Prof. Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, has rejected an analysis by the Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, that the Supreme Court needs at least 20 justices to function efficiently.

Speaking in a JoyNews interview on Thursday, July 11, 2024, Kwaku Azar asserted that the current number of 15 Supreme Court justices was too much, adding that the court can do with as few as 7 judges and it would run efficiently.

He further explained that the justification of the Supreme Court having huge case backlogs that was advanced by the Chief Justice, cannot hold because it is the inefficiencies in the court that have led to them.

He pointed out that the court spends time on needless issues it can disband in minutes and also delves into issues that are not its mandate.

“California has about 39 million people. Ghana has about 35 million people. So, population-wise, about the same. The California Supreme Court has seven members. Every year on average, they deal with about 5,000 filings - 5,000 new cases every year. 5,000, in a $4 trillion economy. Seven justices handling about 5,000 filings in a $4 trillion economy. Ghana, when you look at her data, the Supreme Court of Ghana handles about, on average, 600 cases a year. And they want 20 justices to be handling 600 cases a year. Oh my God.

“The Supreme Court, like most appellate courts, really deals with questions of law. They hardly try cases though. You see them try a case maybe when there’s a presidential petition, but other than that, they are mainly dealing with law. People come there, they say, I think the constitution should be read this way. Another person says I think the constitution should be read that way. The Supreme Court can read these briefs and make a judgment without having people come to the court. And then they adjourn and then they spend 1 hour talking about whether the affidavit is proper, none of which has anything to do with the constitutional issue in question,” he explained.

He added, “So, there’s a lot of built-in inefficiency at the Supreme Court. When you deal with the Supreme Court, you will notice a lot of inefficiencies and we can reform that and cut the number of Supreme Court justices to seven, have them sit on all cases and they should be able to do it.”

The academic also pointed out that the major issue with Ghana’s courts is the lower courts and that should be the focus of the Chief Justice.

He indicated that the number of magistrates and judges at the courts is woefully inadequate and it is what the country should be dealing with.

“Let’s look at Ghana and go to our lower courts. Our lower courts have about 275 magistrates. And these 275 magistrates deal with almost 100,000 cases a year. That is where the bottleneck is. That’s where the problem is.

“And if you had a Chief Justice who understood what was going on rather than just trying to increase the number of Supreme Court justices because she sees a decline in completion rate because of COVID, she will be asking the question, how do we help the lower courts? How do we help the high courts? Because those are the trial courts. Those are the courts that are actually doing all the work,” he added.

BAI/AE

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