Supreme Court Ruling Must Be Respected: Kofi Bentil

Any form of ruling and order from the Supreme Court of Ghana must be obeyed and accorded the highest level of respect despite any form of disagreement or difference of opinion, Lawyer and Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil has noted.

Reacting to the recent stay of execution on Speaker Bagbin’s ruling, which declared four parliamentary seats vacant and subsequent request for the Clerk of Parliament to return the said court documents, Mr. Bentil accused Speaker Bagbin of not doing what would lead to the greater peace of the country.

“The simple thing that would have been done for everything to cool down would have been for the Speaker to say I disagree with you [Supreme Court] but I respect it. As far as I am concerned, I think the Speaker has not done what I believe would have led to greater peace. I want to hear the Speaker communicate his acceptance and communicate the fact that he does not agree. I think this is necessary” he said on JoyNews’ Newsfile.

He added, “I have heard people belligerently, even some angrily saying they would defend their newly won majority, I have heard people say they are going to use their majority to repel laws and you think under those circumstances, we should assume that they are going to go in and do everything properly? You want there to be a scuffle before they go to the same Supreme Court again for ruling?”

Also, the former Attorney General, Martin Amidu in an article has strongly criticized Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin for disobeying orders of the Supreme Court, explaining that, the Speaker’s actions disrupt constitutional order.

He expressed frustration at the Speaker’s attempt to undermine the judiciary by questioning the legitimacy of Supreme Court justices, especially given that they were nominated and approved through a bi-partisan parliamentary process.

“The Supreme Court is the final repository of judicial power in the determination of controversies affecting the citizen and the state. It is one thing criticizing the nomination of a person to the Supreme Court so that Parliament may consider the criticism in the approval process and another thing after Parliament has in a bi-partisan manner approved and recommended the person for appointment and the appointment has been consummated to allege bias in a pending case without any shred of evidence. Once the appointment has been consummated through the constitutionally approved process the sanctity of the institution of the judiciary demands that every citizen gives the appointees the presumption of impartiality until there is concrete proof to the contrary” part of the article reads.

He continued, “The Speaker has no authority to hold the nation to ransom by obstructing the functioning of the constitutional system or any of the arms of government during the pendency of a constitutional matter before the Supreme Court. The Speaker and Parliament have to learn to accept the decisions and orders of the Supreme Court they co-created with the Executive branch for Ghanaians in this epoch of the nation’s history. The wheels of government must move smoothly while the judiciary exercises the judicial power apportioned to it under the Constitution to resolve the pending constitutional impasse. The Speaker should file his Statement of Case as directed by the Court and let the Court resolve the controversy between the plaintiff and the defendants.”

Background

On October 18, the Supreme Court issued a stay of execution on Speaker Alban Bagbin’s ruling, which declared four parliamentary seats vacant.

Parliament was, in essence, instructed to recognise and allow the four MPs perform their constitutional mandate until the Supreme Court delivers its final ruling on a case filed by Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin.

On October 22, Alban Bagbin adjourned sitting in the House indefinitely and subsequently filed an application to overturn the Supreme Court ruling which was rejected.

The case has been adjourned to November 11.