In a recent appearance on Keypoints, Godwin Edudzi Tameklo critically analysed the ongoing judicial review application filed by Gertrude Araba Sackey Torkornoo, the suspended Chief Justice of Ghana.
He emphasised that once the constitutional process under Article 146 has commenced, the option of resignation or voluntary withdrawal is no longer available.
Tameklo recalled the earlier public debate; “Ghanaians said look if the Chief Justice wants to resign she should be permitted to resign,” he said in a panel discussion on TV’s Keypoints monitored by MyNewsGh.
However, he pointed out the Supreme Court’s interpretation that “once an Article 146 process has commenced you do not have the option of resigning.”
He further asserted that by turning to the High Court via a judicial review application, the Chief Justice is effectively seeking to convert what is constitutionally a non-appealable process into an appeal; “If you look at the grounds … what she is doing is to say that the committee says I’m not fit and proper … however … under our constitution there is only one group … who can make that determination. Not even the Supreme Court.”
Tameklo described this manoeuvre as “complete constitutional lawlessness,” arguing that allowing a High Court judge to review the findings of the Article 146 Committee would undermine the confidentiality and finality characteristic of the in-camera inquiry.
He warned that if the judicial review succeeds, the Committee’s protected proceedings would become open to merit-based examination, disrupting the constitutional design for removal of the Chief Justice.
