Joyce Bawah Mogtari questions GBA’s move to needlessly undermine the work of CJ

Senior Presidential Advisor and Senior Presidential Aide to President John Dramani Mahama, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, has questioned the Ghana Bar Association’s (GBA) position on proceedings during the legal vacation.

She argued that the association’s public concerns could undermine the administrative authority of the Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie.

Ms Mogtari, in a Facebook post on Wednesday, August 12, said the continued sitting of vacation courts was not a new practice and had historically been used to expedite cases and reduce the workload of the judiciary.

“For the longest time we have almost always had vacation Judges sitting in the course of the legal vacation. To expedite cases and to reduce the caseload,” she said.

“It sounds almost like an affront to the administrative authority of the Chief Justice,” she wrote, questioning why the association would seek to challenge the authority of the Chief Justice.

According to her, the GBA’s position is needless and undermines the work of the Chief Justice.

She further added that the public nature of the disagreement was particularly troubling.

“Why would the GBA want to needlessly undermine the work of the Chief Justice, and to do so in such a public manner also sounds very disrespectfully disturbing,” she added.

This came after Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie stated that the legal vacation does not prevent an available and willing judge from continuing to hear a case.

He rejected the argument that vacation status alone should freeze all court proceedings, clarifying that the legal vacation is primarily for judges, not for lawyers.

Legal vacation in Ghana is an annual court break running from August 1 to September 30 for superior courts.