The substantial increase in the backlog of 414 and 595 cases in the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 legal years, during which there were the fewest number of Justices of the Supreme Court for the five-year period under review, provided empirical justification for the need to expand the number of Justices at the Supreme Court to curb the rising backlog of cases, the Attorney-General Godfred Dame has said in support of the request by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo for five more justices of the Supreme Court to be appointed to make it twenty.
Godfred Dame says that appointing more justices of the apex court is not only constitutional but would ensure speedy and effective justice, minimise delays and unnecessary expense and conduce to the general efficient administration of the Supreme Court.
“Given the breadth of the multiplicity of jurisdictions of the Supreme Court, the request for the increase in the number of justices serving on the Supreme Court from the conventional fifteen (in addition to the Chief Justice) to twenty, is not only constitutional but would ensure speedy and effective justice, minimise delays and unnecessary expense and conduce to the general efficient administration of the Supreme Court,” he said in a statement.
He added “Understandably, the permutations in the constitution of the panels, almost simultaneously, could be daunting for effective and efficient work in the face of the limited number of Justices at the Supreme Court, as the Court is incessantly inundated with cases.”
“The enhancement of the membership of the Supreme Court to twenty, as requested in the brief by Her Ladyship the Chief Justice, is appropriate,” he further stated..
Read his full statement here
The recommendations by the Chief Justice raised concerns among some lawyers and analysts including a Private legal Practitioner Martin Kpebu.
Mr Kpebu said that the concerns are not about the competence of the names that have come up.
He says the concerns are about the timing and the procedure for the appointments. For the president to appoint Supreme Court justices there has to be a recommendation from the Judicial Council to that effect, Kpebu said.
Without a recommendation from the Judicial Council, the president cannot proceed with the process of appointing new justices of the apex court, he added.
Kpebu said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, July 6 that “There must be a recommendation from the Judicial Council…If the president has not received advice from the judicial council he cannot start.”
He added “But that the nominees are not bad, it is the timing that is bad. These are fine justices but it is about procedure and timing, this debate is not about competence at all.”
