The Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo has debunked assertions that the courts are solely responsible for the delays in the prosecution of accused persons in illegal mining cases.
In an address on Wednesday, October 2, at the annual conference of Judges and Magistrates in Accra, the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame while laying the blame at the doors of the courts, appealed to the Chief Justice to direct judges to complete galamsey cases a month after the resumption of the legal break.
Yeboah-Dame posited that delays by the courts had resulted in a major setback in the fight against the galamsey menace.
“It is beyond argument that the form of illegal mining known as “galamsey” continues to wreak incalculable damage to our forest reserves and river bodies. A major setback to the struggle against galamsey is the rate of adjudication and punishment of offenders.
The deterrence to galamsey sought to be achieved by the amendment to the Minerals and Mining Act in 2019, requiring a punishment of a minimum of 15 years plus a heavy fine in the case of a Ghanaian, and a minimum of 20 years plus a hefty fine for a non-Ghanaian, is not aided by the tardiness of our courts in completing galamsey cases.
Mr Dame noted that “Convictions are secured but they come in trickles. Currently, over 140 cases of illegal mining involving over 850 accused persons are pending in courts in the Western, Eastern, Ashanti, Greater-Accra and Upper East Regions of Ghana. Some have been pending since 2020. This situation cannot be right. We are in an urgent national crisis and all citizens and institutions with any form of role to play must be called to action.”
“Your ladyship, I, therefore, respectfully call on you to direct all judges sitting on galamsey cases to conclude the cases, the hearing of which has started, within one month from the commencement of the legal year on 10th October 2024. Reasonably, it can be done,” he appealed.
But in her response, the Chief Justice reminded the Minister of Justice and Attorney General that his outfit and essentially prosecutors were often the reason cases delayed at the courts.
“On the issue of delays in galamsey cases, the Attorney General will acknowledge that our engagements have shown delays in the work of prosecutors,” Gertrude Torkornoo noted.
The Chief Justice further cautioned judges against needless adjournments of cases.
“Too often, the office of the Chief Justice receives petitions about delays through unending adjournments of cases. I wish to implore Judges to do away completely with the model of fixing cases ‘for mention’.
“No matter how tall a cause list is, my sincere view is that with the inclusion of witness statements as a necessary part of the trial process in both civil and criminal cases, there is no need for a court to adjourn a case after the case management conferences for ‘mention’. My firm view developed from 20 years of sitting as a trial judge and appellate judge, is that it should not be the norm that parties are made to dress up, leave their businesses, spend money travelling, and spend time just sitting in a court premise only to hear the title of their case called out and told to come back another date. This should be the exceptional situation,” she posited
Gertrude Torkornoo maintained that “Judges are urged to please get on with the business of hearing lawyers and parties when cases are scheduled. As leaders of their courts, it should be our duty to designate officers to review dockets to ensure that hearing notices ordered have been served and cases are properly ripe for hearing before citizens are made to come to a court for hearing. If bailiffs fail to serve processes, registrars should be supervised to set up systems for informing parties not to come to court, until processes are ripe for hearing their case. Judges are further encouraged to monitor the efficiency of the backroom processes regarding the dockets before them so that they do not pile up their cause lists through interminable adjournments.”
