Former Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo has asked the High Court to overturn President John Dramani Mahama’s decision removing her from the Supreme Court, describing the move as unconstitutional and unlawful.
In a judicial review application, Justice Torkornoo argues that the petition against her was strictly about her role as Chief Justice, yet President Mahama extended the removal to her position as a Justice of the Supreme Court.
She insists the Constitution outlines two distinct procedures, and the committee that investigated her as Chief Justice had no authority to recommend her removal from the Supreme Court.
She is therefore seeking an order of certiorari to quash the presidential warrant issued on September 1, a declaration that only a committee constituted under Article 146(4) can recommend the removal of a Justice of the Superior Courts, and confirmation that the President has no independent power to remove a Justice outside this process.
Her affidavit stresses that “the prescribed procedure … is, in the wisdom of the framers of the Constitution, distinct from the mandated procedure for the removal of a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana.”
Justice Torkornoo filed the application under Article 141, invoking the supervisory powers of the High Court to check unlawful or excessive acts by state bodies.
President Mahama’s warrant followed a five-member committee’s recommendation to remove her as Chief Justice under Article 146(6).
Justice Torkornoo, however, maintains that extending the same decision to her role as a Justice of the Supreme Court violates the Constitution and undermines the separation of procedures intended by its framers.
