Justice Dotse’s remarks on SC judgement unethical – Amaliba

A member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, has described as “unethical” remarks made on Thursday, May 26 by Supreme Court justice Jones Dotse on the May 5 ruling on Ramadan/Nimako v EC case.

Justice Dotse interacting with some journalists in Accra emphasised that the Court’s ruling was “forthright” and “clear”, demanding an expunction of names of those who used the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards to register for elections.

“The Supreme Court was quite forthright and clear that the use of the NHIS cards is unconstitutional because the criteria for the NHIS cards was not based on Ghanaian citizenship but only on residents in Ghana.”

But speaking on Accra-based Joy FM on Thursday, a few hours after Justice Dotse’s comments, Mr Amaliba said it does not even lie in the purview of the Supreme Court justice to comment on the ruling.

“In what capacity is Justice Dotse making those comments?” he asked. “Was he commenting as a judge or commenting as a social commentator?”

‘Disrepute’

Mr Amaliba insisted that Justice Dotse is just one of seven justices who gave the judgement and his interpretation cannot represent that of the Court.

“I think that he has brought himself into disrepute and for me it does not lie in his mouth to interpret the ruling he said was unambiguous.

“He is just one of the panel members and his view cannot be the view of the entire court.”

Justice Dotse in his remarks had encouraged persons who are aggrieved by the judgement to go back to the Court for interpretation.

But Mr Amaliba, who is a losing parliamentary aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Bolgatanga Constituency, said that comment was even worse as a judge has no authority to invite litigants to return to court for interpretation on an order.