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Justice should be based on law – CJ
Accra, Sept. 4, Ghanadot/GNA - Justice should not be anchored on
friendship, kinship or fellowship but should be based on the
law, Mrs. Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, the Chief Justice(CJ),
on Friday told newly sworn in judges and magistrate in Accra.
“It is important to remind you that justice can only be rendered
according to law and not on other considerations.”
Mrs. Wood, therefore, tasked members of the bench
to apply the law impartially by giving each person a fair and
unprejudiced hearing.
He said this when she and Mrs. Rose Owusu Justice of the Supreme
Court jointly administered oaths of allegiance, judicial and
oath of secrecy on three Circuit Court judges and nine
magistrates including three females at a ceremony in Accra.
The Chief Justice, touching on public trust and confidence in
the Judiciary, said the two were fundamental to the rule of law
and democratic governance in the country.
Mrs Wood said “Any conduct by those of us entrusted with
judicial power and which will be inimical to our interest should
not be tolerated.”
“We need to understand that public confidence in the judicial
systems must be guarded and protected at all cost, because if
they were eroded, the rule of law and all those democratic
values and principles that the nation had toiled so hard for
would be irretrievably lost.”
Mrs. Wood noted that Ghanaians had increasingly become aware of
their rights and knew what to expect from public servants and
reminded judges and magistrates to bear in mind that they were
in the public eye and stood in danger of being sanctioned if
their conducts fell below standard.
To consolidate judicial integrity, she reminded them that as
magistrates and judges, they were not above the law but rather
subject to it.
“Judicial transparency and accountability demanded demands that
we should be the first to subject ourselves to the constitution
and laws of this land and be ready to give a good account of our
stewardship at all times,” she added.
On the increasing number of remand prisoners, the CJ said human
rights institutions and advocates had expressed their
dissatisfaction over the way criminal cases were managed and
over crowding in the prisons.
Litigants were also not satisfied with the “painfully slow and
frustrating pace at which civil cases were disposed off.”
Mrs Wood said the judicial service expected them to work harder
despite the services’ challenges.
She promised that the service would provide them with the
requisite judicial training to enable them discharge their
duties efficiently.
Mr. Solomon Kwame Tetteh, Acting National President of the Ghana
Bar Association (GBA) reminded the magistrates and judges of the
oaths they had sworn and asked them to protect the poor and
vulnerable in the society.
He urged them to take into consideration the congestion at the
prisons when writing their sentences.
Mr Tetteh urged the magistrates and judges to live beyond
suspicion when receiving gifts, saying “its is the very people
who offer you gifts who would betray you”.
GNA
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