Move To Ensure Speedy Justice. Criminal Procedure To Be Reviewed

The country's criminal justice procedure is to be reviewed to ensure the efficient and speedy delivery of justice.

The Chief Justice, Mr Justice George Kingsley Acquah, who announced this yesterday said civil procedures under the High Court rules had been revised and replaced with a new High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I.47).

He said that a commission would be set up to undertake the review when an Attorney-General and Minister of Justice is appointed to discuss its composition and scope of work.

The Chief Justice made this known to the paper in Accra after he had opened a three-day training workshop for judges on the new High Court rules which came into effect on January 3, 2005. He said that the Judiciary was poised to satisfy the public to ensure that cases were quickly disposed of and with efficiency.

The review of the criminal procedure code would, among others, look at such areas as the rule and procedure relating to the hearing of cases, the issue of bail on indictment, summary trial and the system whereby accused persons have to appear at magistrate courts before being committed to stand trial at the High Court.

At the end of the programme, the judges are expected to acquire general knowledge of the usage of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004, (C.I.47), improve on their skills in case management for expeditious hearing of cases, decision-making, judgment writing, among others.

The new rules are part of measures initiated by the Judicial Service to bring sanity into the judiciary, especially in the dispensation of justice, and to mitigate the undue delay of cases in the courts.