Legal vacation: GBA's public opposition to Chief Justice's decision 'disrespectfully disturbing' – Joyce Bawah

Senior Presidential Advisor and Special Aide to President John Dramani Mahama, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, has criticised the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) over its opposition to the decision to hear some substantive criminal cases during the ongoing legal vacation.

The GBA has raised concerns over a directive for some criminal trials to continue during the legal vacation, which runs until September 30.

This followed notices issued to some law firms representing high-profile accused persons, including former National Signals Bureau boss Adu Boahen, directing them to appear before vacation judges to continue part-heard cases.

The GBA, led by its National President, Efua Ghartey, has petitioned Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie to halt the trials, arguing that compelling lawyers to appear during the vacation undermines statutory provisions and long-standing legal practice.

The Bar has also argued that the legal vacation is a statutory rest period and that vacation courts have traditionally dealt mainly with urgent interlocutory matters such as bail and injunction applications.

According to the GBA, compelling substantive trials to proceed when counsel may be unavailable could undermine the right to legal representation and create concerns about fairness and selective justice.

However, reacting to the controversy in a social media post on Wednesday, August 12, Bawah Mogtari questioned the GBA’s decision to publicly challenge the Chief Justice’s administrative authority.

“Difficult for me not to read ulterior motives in the #GBA’s letter to the Right Honorable Chief Justice. It sounds almost like an affront to the administrative authority of the Chief Justice,” she said.

She argued that the practice of having vacation judges sit during the legal vacation is not new and that it was intended to expedite cases and reduce the backlog before the courts.

“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,” Ms Bawah Mogtari added.