Private Citizen Challenges Summoning In The Name Of Chief Justice

A private citizen, Mr. James Marshall Belieb, has sued the Attorney General and the Chief Justice over the practice of summoning people before court in the name of the Chief Justice.

In a writ invoking the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the Kumasi-based private citizen contends that the practice insults the fact that justice emanates from the Ghanaian people and not the Chief Justice.

His writ, dated the 17th of September, 2021, asks the apex court for reliefs including, “A declaration that the practice whereby the description “Chief Justice “followed by the name of the occupant of the office of Chief Justice which appears one every writ of summons issued in Ghana is wrongful, unlawful, unconstitutional, inconsistent with and in contravention of the preamble Article 1 and Article 125 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana and ought to cease forthwith.”

According to Mr. Belieb, he brings the writ in his capacity as a Ghanaian citizen bent on ensuring that the 1992 constitution of Ghana is adhered to by all.

To support his case, he quotes Chapter 1 of the Constituency which deals with the supremacy of the Constitution and the fact that the Constitution’s supremacy is so because it says that, “the sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people of Ghana in whose name and for whose welfare the powers of government are to be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down in this constitution.”

The plaintiff states that the practice of summoning in the name of the Chief Justice rather than the people of Ghana appears to be sanctioned by a subsidiary legislation, “to wit High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004 (CI47 and is for a practical purpose a mandatory requirement without which a writ of summons cannot be validly filed in Ghana.”

Interestingly, he points out that in the legislation which preceded CI47, “it is the name of “Elizabeth ll of England “which appears on every writ of summons. This was at a time that Ghana was a British colony.”