REPUBLIC v. HIGH COURT, ACCRA; EX PARTE YALLEY

R U L I N G

MRS. WOOD, C.J.:

The case which triggered this instant application has suffered a series of dramatic twists and turns. Little wonder that we have been invited to intervene by issuing an order of certiorari to quash an order of the High Court presided over by Mrs Justice Ivy Ashong –Yakubu, dated the 22nd of January 2007.

The self explanatory grounds of the application to invoke our supervisory jurisdiction are that:

“The High Court acted without or in excess of jurisdiction by hearing the said suit which has been transferred from another High Court without the seal and authorisation of His Lordship the Chief Justice.

There was a patent error on the face of the record when the said High Court assumed it had jurisdiction and ordered a bench warrant for the arrest of the applicant.

That the orders of the High Court, Accra were made without jurisdiction and as such are null and void.”

The facts leading to this application are quite straightforward. In September 2006, the applicant caused a writ of summons to be issued against the interested parties in respect of a plot of land he claimed the respondents have trespassed on, and successfully applied for an order of interim injunction against them for the statutory ten day maximum period.

On the 1st of November, however, the respondent initiated contempt proceedings against the applicant. Curiously, none of the affidavits offer any explanation as to why this step was taken against the applicant. The lapse is however not fatal to these present proceedings. The more crucial issue however is that the contempt application was placed before Mrs Justice Owusu –Arhin, where, in line with court management practices, it continued to be managed by her court clerk during the period she was away on leave. Indeed, when the matter came up in her absence on 15th November, 2006, it was accordingly adjourned, in the presence of both parties to the 18th of January 2007 by the court clerk.

Soon after this adjournment, the respondent, through his counsel succeeded in having the Registrar of the court not only abridge the date by bringing it forward to the 14th of December 2006, but without an order from the Chief Justice, caused the matter to be transferred to an entirely different court and placed before a new judge.

The new Judge ordered a bench warrant to issue against the applicant when he failed to attend court on the 14th of December, 2006. As if not to be outdone in what I may describe as a game of chara