NewzDeputy Attorney-General (A-G) and Minister for Justice, Dr Justice Srem-Sai, has dismissed the Ghana Bar Association’s (GBA) position on legal vacation as having no basis in law, describing it as a “self-imposed understanding” that cannot be allowed to undermine the administration of justice. According to him, there is no genuine controversy over whether courts can sit and conduct proceedings during the legal vacation, insisting that vacation courts have always been constituted to deal with cases during the period. Dr Srem-Sai said the assertion that lawyers could determine whether proceedings should take place during legal vacations was unsupported by law, practice or reason.
“No genuine or real controversy here. It’s been the case that vacation courts are always sitting whenever there is a legal vacation,” he said. He stressed that the authority to determine when courts sit rests with the judiciary and not lawyers appearing before them.
“No one can dispute that simple fact. The claim that it is the lawyers who decide whether they want to have proceedings on vacation is not founded on any facts; it’s not founded on any law, it’s not founded on reason, and it is not founded on any rule of practice. Nowhere in the world do you see lawyers deciding when a court should sit,” he added.
‘GBA got it completely wrong’ The Deputy Attorney-General’s comments come amid a disagreement between the government and the GBA over the conduct of court proceedings during the current legal vacation. Dr Srem-Sai said the Chief Justice had issued warrants authorising a number of judges to sit during the vacation to deal with cases assigned to them. “What matters is that the head of the judiciary has given warrants for a number of judges, I think 10 or more judges, to sit across the country to take care of cases,” he said.
He explained that a judge assigned to a vacation court had the authority to administer his or her court during that period, arguing that accepting the GBA’s interpretation would create further delays when the legal vacation ended. “Now this is a thing; a vacation judge has his own courts to administer. Now when the vacation is over, he is also entitled to go on vacation; that is, after October,” he said.
Dr Srem-Sai argued that if vacation judges were prevented from hearing cases during the legal vacation, cases before them could face prol… Deputy Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Justice Srem-Sai, has rejected the Ghana Bar Association’s position on proceedings during the legal vacation, insisting that lawyers have no legal basis to decide whether cases should be heard before Vacation Courts. He described the GBA’s position as “completely wrong”, arguing that it is unsupported by law, fact, reason or established rules of court practice.
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