Republic v High Court, Cape Coast, ex parte Kow Larbie and another

AMUA-SEKYI JSC.

The applicants are Kow Larbie, also known as Kobina Abaka II, Kow Asafua and Abogaye Abbiw, also known as Nsenyi Akonodi II. The third applicant claims to have been installed as Odefoy or Paramount Chief of Senya Beraku in place of Nsenyi Kweku Issiw VI who was said to have vacated his office. Following the installation of the third applicant, Nsenyi Andakweku IV who claims to be regent in the absence of Nsenyi Kweku Issiw VI and two others sought the assistance of the High Court, Cape Coast. They applied for orders of certiorari and prohibition. The High Court presided over by Beatrice Ayemang-Bempah J ruled that certiorari did not lie, but granted the application for prohibition. She ordered that the present applicants be restrained from holding up the third applicant as a chief and the chieftaincy authorities from having the fact of his alleged installation published in the Government Gazette. In coming to her decision, the learned judge expressed the opinion that the matter before her was not a cause or matter affecting chieftaincy and that the decision of this court in Republic v High Court Koforidua ex parte Nyame [1994-95] GBR 512 to which her attention had been drawn, was not relevant to the case before her. In this she was clearly wrong since the question before her was whether the applicant had been properly installed as a chief.

Although article 140 clause 1 of the Constitution 1992 confers on the High Court jurisdiction in all matters, this is made subject to other provisions of the constitution. The provisions that restrict or limit the jurisdiction of the High Court are the following:

(a) Article 2 confers original jurisdiction on the Supreme Court in actions in which it is alleged that an enactment or anything contained in or done under it or any act done or omitted to be done by any person is inconsistent with, or a contravention of, a provision of the constitution;

(b) Article 130(1) which, while preserving the jurisdiction of the High Court in the enforcement of the human rights provisions of the constitution, confers exclusive original jurisdiction on the Supreme Court in all other constitutional matters;

(c) Article 273(5) gives judicial committees of the National House of Chiefs original jurisdiction in any cause or matter affecting chieftaincy where the cause or matter lies within the competence of two or more Regional Houses of Chiefs, or is not properly within the jurisdiction of a Regional Ho