Supreme Court directs 2 to file arguments

June 20, 2008 (Page 31)

THE Supreme Court has directed the Ghana Lotto Operators Association (GLOA) and the National Lottery Authority (NLA) to file their arguments on or before June 24, 2008 to enable it to determine disputes between the two parties.
The court has fixed June 27, 2008 for hearing of the legal action instituted against the NLA by the GLOA on the constitutionality or otherwise of the National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722) which gave the NLA the exclusive right to operate lotto.
The Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina T. Wood, is the presiding judge with Mr Justice S. A. Brobbey, Dr Justice Date Bah, Mrs Justice Sophia Adinyira and Mr Justice Julius Ansah as panel members.
According to the GLOA, the National Lotto Act, which outlawed the operations of lotto business by private lotto operators, infringes the constitutionally guaranteed right of the private lotto operators to free economic activity.
According to them, the creation of the NLA to take over and monopolise the operation of the lotto business in Ghana infringed the constitutional injunction to the government to ensure a pronounced role for the private sector in the economy.
They are, therefore, proposing the establishment of an independent licensing and regulatory commission to oversee the operations of lotto operators, including the Department of National Lotteries (DNL) which they claimed had doubled itself as the NLA.
However, counsel for the NLA insisted the law was constitutional and, therefore, did not infringe on the rights of the GLOA.
The NLA further argued that the Lotto Act did not monopolise its (NLA’s) operations.
It further maintained that the Act was not meant to put people out of business but to regulate the operations of lotto operators in the country.
The Accra High Court, on March 14, 2008, granted an interlocutory injunction filed by the GLOA and six others to restrain the NLA from interfering with the property rights of lotto operating businesses of those concerned.
According to the court, the outcome of the case at the Supreme Court would guide it in its decision in the case because the issue of constitutionality had been raised by the NLA.
In the substantive matter, the plaintiffs — including Obiri Asare and Sons Limited, Rambel Enterprise Limited, Dan Multi-Purpose Limited, Agrop Association Ltd, Star Lotto Ltd and From-Home Enterprises — filed the interlocutory injunction to restrain the defendant from “interfering with the property rights or lotto operating businesses of the plaintiffs pending the final determination of this matter”.
The matter was dealt with by a High Court in September, last year, which referred the parties to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
The GLOA sought a declaration that the directive from the NLA to private lotto operators to surrender machines or equipment used for the operation of lottery to the director-general by August 14, 2007 was unconstitutional, illegal and unreasonable.
Consequent to the order, they want an order to set aside that directive and a further order to restrain the NLA from “unlawfully, unconstitutionally or unreasonably interfering with the property rights of the plaintiffs”.