Law lecturers drag AMJG to court

June 14, 2011 (Page 3 Lead)

TWO lawyers have dragged the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana (AMJG) to court for refusing to hear four lawyers who have accused judges of being corrupt.
Also joined in the suit are the General Legal Council and the Chairperson of the Disciplinary Committee of the council.
Dr Clement Apaak and Dr Samuel Buame, both lecturers at the University of Ghana, in a motion for judicial review, are praying the court, which will be presided over by a member of the AMJG, to review the actions of the respondents against the four lawyers, among other reliefs.
The two, who are also spokespersons for the Forum for Governance and Justice, in an affidavit in support of the motion, stated that the AMJG had, on May 18, 2011, lodged a complaint with the General Legal Council praying the council to deal with four lawyers, namely, Dr Raymond Atuguba, Mr Abraham Amaliba, Mr Laary Bimi and Mr David Annan, by inviting the four to the Disciplinary Committee of the council to substantiate and justify their allegations.
The two are praying the court to prohibit the General Legal Council and its Disciplinary Committee from proceeding to act on the purported complaint made against the four lawyers by an organisation operating illegally.
The applicants are also urging the court to declare that the AMJG does not possess the legal authority to engage in business in Ghana, since all activities of the AMJG, after its incorporation, including the purported complaint submitted by it to the General Legal Council, are illegal and therefore, null and void.
They are also praying for a declaration that the objects of the AMJG are illegal, as they contravene the Labour Laws of Ghana.
They are also praying for a certiorari to quash any purported decision of the General Legal Council or its Disciplinary Committee to proceed with the hearing of the purported complaint.
Exhibits attached to the motion for judicial review stated, among others, that although the AMJG was incorporated on February 12, 1999 with certificate number G-4 125, it did not have a certificate to commence business, adding that documents received from the Registrar of Companies indicated that every action taken by the AMJG since its incorporation was illegal.
According to the applicants, under the Labour Act, the AMJG, being a decision-making body, was not allowed to form or join a trade union, adding that the association, according to the law, was supposed to have 20 executive members but it currently had 16 members and yet the purported petition against the four lawyers was signed by 25 executive members of the AMJG.
An affidavit in support said the AMJG also issued a statement permitting judges to recuse themselves from hearing the four lawyers until they substantiated their claims.
“That following the decision of the AMJG, on May 19, 2011, one of the lawyers named in the complaint of the AMJG was refused hearing in the Supreme Court,” it held.
The said lawyer, Dr Atuguba, who had gone to do a civil case between the Mr Sumaila Biebel and the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mr Adamu Daramani Sakande, had been refused hearing by a nine-member Supreme Court panel.
The court was made up of Mr Justice S.A. Brobbey, Mr Justice Julius Ansah, Ms Justice Rose C. Owusu, Mr Justice Jones Dotse, Mr Justice Annin Yeboah, Mr Justice P. Baffoe-Bonnie, Mr Justice B.T. Aryeetey, Mr Justice N.S. Gbadegbe and Mrs Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo.
According to the applicants, the action by the Superior Court justices and the AMJG amounted to “embarking on strike or a go-slow in a manner that contravenes the Labour Laws of Ghana”.