The President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Mrs Efua Ghartey, has dismissed claims that the association has been selective in its advocacy in recent times.
Delivering her address at the opening of the 2025 annual GBA conference in Wa on Monday, Mrs Ghartey defended the association’s stance on the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo. While acknowledging that Article 146 provides for the removal of a Chief Justice, she raised concerns about the procedure followed.
Her remarks came in response to comments by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic A. Ayine, who had said that although the Bar has played a vital role in assisting the Supreme Court in interpreting and enforcing the constitution, “outside the courtroom, the advocacy of the Bar has lacked consistency.”
Mrs Ghartey countered that there are no clear and comprehensive regulations guiding the application of Article 146. In her view, the absence of such rules makes the process vulnerable to “arbitrariness and lack of fairness.”
“The lack of an enactment for the removal of the fourth highest person in the nation should be a matter of concern to all. These rules should have been known to all and sundry before the commencement of the process as it greatly affected the standard to be met. It is an unfortunate precedent that lacks fairness, a situation that calls for redress if we are indeed custodians of justice,” she said.
She added that the GBA’s constitution mandates members to protect the independence of the Judiciary— a responsibility the association has always taken seriously.
“From time immemorial, the Bar has fiercely performed this duty,” she stressed.
Source: Graphic.com
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