Supreme Court to rule on Oppong Nkrumah's quest to halt court sittings during vacation today

The Supreme Court of Ghana is set to rule on an application filed by Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi, challenging the constitutionality of administrative warrants issued by the Chief Justice, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, allowing selected High Court judges to conduct criminal trials during the legal vacation.

According to MyJoyOnline Ghana and Ghana Business News, Oppong Nkrumah's application argues that the arrangement could interfere with the accused persons' right to fair representation and their choice of lawyer.

The case was heard by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, sitting as a sole judge, with the Attorney-General and the Chief Justice as defendants, as reported by Ghanaian Times and Ghana Business News. Oppong Nkrumah's counsel, Frank Davies, argued that the Chief Justice, as head of an independent arm of government, should have separate legal representation from the Executive, citing concerns about the constitutional principle of separation of powers, as stated in Ghanaian Times and MyJoyOnline Ghana.

The ruling is expected to determine whether the Chief Justice's administrative warrants directing selected High Court judges to conduct criminal trials during the legal vacation are constitutional. According to Justice Gabriel Pwamang, sitting as a single judge, the case was adjourned after lawyers for Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and the respondents presented their arguments on Thursday, August 20, as reported by 3News.

Brief written by urgent.news from 3News, Ghanaian Times, MyJoyOnline Ghana, Ghana Business News, The Hindu — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.