By Francis Kobena Tandoh
Supreme Court judge nominee Justice Senyo Dzamefe on Monday said he supports the uncapping of judges for the country’s apex court, aligning his views with suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
Appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament, Justice Dzamefe said the framers of the 1992 Constitution deliberately left the number of Supreme Court judges uncapped, a design he believes remains relevant.
“The framers of our law, the constitution, know why they haven’t put a limit on the number of Supreme Court judges; it’s not capped,” he told the committee. “So far as the constitution doesn’t cap the number of judges, I am for it.”
He lent his support to two key arguments frequently made by the Chief Justice for an increased bench size.
Firstly, Justice Dzamefe agreed that a larger number of judges is crucial to mitigate significant delays in the administration of justice.
He acknowledged that the current complement of judges, estimated at 13 prior to the current seven nominees, are “overburdened” by heavy caseloads, which impact their ability to efficiently “write opinions” and “hold conferences.”
This burden, a Chief Justice’s 2024 letter to the President reportedly indicated, affects the overall administration of justice.
Secondly, he dismissed the often-cited comparison between Ghana’s Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court.
He backed the Chief Justice’s argument that such comparisons are flawed because, while the US Federal Supreme Court indeed has only nine judges, it operates within a system that includes “50 Supreme Courts in the states plus the one federal Supreme Court.”
“You can’t compare the Ghana situation, where we have one Supreme Court, versus the US that has 50 Supreme Courts at the state joining the federal Supreme Court,” he explained.
He further clarified that the US federal court’s jurisdiction is limited primarily to “constitutional and federal issues” and, crucially, it retains “the discretion to choose” which cases it hears, a luxury not afforded to Ghana’s single, broader-jurisdiction Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice’s 2024 letter detailed this analysis to justify the need for more appointments, recommending that the “average size of the court should be 20” judges.
Beyond the numbers, Justice Dzamefe also weighed in on the issue of access to justice, particularly for citizens in remote parts of the country.
When asked by the Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, about the feasibility of establishing a “northern bench” or branches of the Supreme Court to spare litigants from areas like Bawku the arduous journey to Accra, Justice Dzamefe expressed openness.
“We have only one Supreme Court in Ghana, and that court can have several branches, but it’s the same Supreme Court, just as the Court of Appeal and the High Courts,” he responded. “So I don’t see anything wrong if there’s a branch there.” Enditem
Source: Ghana Eye Report
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