CONCESSION ENQUIRY (NO. 1118) (ACCRA)

JUDGMENT OF ADUMUA-BOSSMAN J.

This ruling is in respect of an application by motion at the instance of the Administrator of Stool Lands (hereinafter referred to shortly as the administrator) for the review of an order made on the 22nd December, 1960, granting a certificate of validity in respect of the concession lease herein.

The first question raised is whether the court is competent to entertain the application having regard to the time when it was made. As to that, Mr. Franklin, counsel for the claimant, has submitted that the administrator could only intervene in this concession proceedings by virtue of section 8 of the Stool Lands Control Act, 19591 which provides that: "The Governor-General shall . . . have the right of taking part in the name of the Stool concerned in any proceedings concerning any lands from which Stool revenue is derived". As the administrator is permitted to intervene only "in the name of the Stool concerned" continued counsel in his submissions, he must be subject to all the disabilities to which the "Stool concerned" may or shall be liable or subject. One such disability, said counsel, which is prescribed by the Concessions Ordinance2 is that contained in section 14 proviso (ii) in the following terms:

"No enquiry shall be held as to the validity of any concession before the expiration of three months from the date of filing of the notice of such concession [p.451] and any person may, subject to the regulations made under section 5 of this Ordinance, enter notice of opposition to the granting of certificate of validity of such concession:

Provided that—

(i) …

(ii) where an order for a Survey has been made by the Court under section 20 and the boundaries of the concession have either wholly or in part been cut or demarcated for the purposes of such survey, then no opposition on the part of any native to the granting of a certificate of validity of such concession shall be entertained by the Court unless notice of such opposition has been filed within two months of the cutting or demarcation of such part of the boundaries of the concession as affect the interests of the person entering the notice of opposition . . .”

It is admitted that with regard to this concession, demarcation had taken place over two months even before the making of the order granting certificate of validity dated the 22nd December, 1960, now sought to be reviewed to permit the lodging of opposition, and counsel contends that in the circumstances th