The Human Rights Division of the High Court has dismissed an application for judicial review filed by suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
Presiding judge, Justice Kwame Amoako, in a ruling on Thursday, July 30, 2025, described the application as an “abuse of court processes” and ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.
This marks the second failed legal attempt by Justice Torkornoo to stop ongoing proceedings seeking her possible removal from office under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution.
The judicial review followed an earlier constitutional interpretation case she filed at the Supreme Court, which remains pending. However, her separate request for an injunction to halt the impeachment process until the Supreme Court delivers its ruling was also previously dismissed.
Filed on June 9, 2025, the judicial review application sought nine reliefs, including declarations that the committee investigating her under Article 146 had acted unlawfully. She also asked for an order to quash the committee’s proceedings and to prohibit it from continuing unless authenticated copies of the petitions and her responses were provided.
But the court found that many of her claims overlapped with issues already before the Supreme Court. Justice Amoako held that revisiting those matters amounted to duplicative litigation and therefore constituted an abuse of process.
He added that the High Court lacked the authority to interfere with the work of the Article 146 committee, which, under Article 146(8) of the Constitution, must be conducted in-camera and protected from outside review.
The ruling followed a motion filed by the Attorney-General on July 1, 2025, seeking to strike out the application.
The A-G’s office argued that the application suffered from fundamental legal defects and warned that allowing it to proceed would constitute judicial overreach and breach established Supreme Court precedents.
The A-G further contended that the Human Rights Court had no jurisdiction over the matter, as it involved issues already under consideration by the Supreme Court.
Source: Adomonline.com
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