THE REPUBLIC v. CENTRAL REGION LANDS COMMISSION, EX PARTE: NANA AMPONSAH ATTAH IV

HONYENUGA, J.A.

This is an appeal against the Ruling of the High Court, Agona Swedru dated the 13th day of December 2012. The said court dismissed an application for judicial review in the nature of Mandamus to compel the Central Regional Lands Commission, the respondent to restore the lapsed statutory declaration.

The facts of this appeal are that on the 29th December 1995, the applicant/appellant as the chief deposed to a Statutory Declaration which he subsequently registered with the respondent/respondent at the Lands Commission Secretariat at Cape Coast. The said Statutory Declaration was registered as CR 117/86. In 2010, some prospective developers to whom the applicant/appellant granted portions of the land to, conducted searches at the Lands Commission Secretariat. The said searches revealed that the respondent/respondent lapsed the Statutory Declaration and expunged it from their official records on the 10th May, 2001. Some of those who approached the applicant/appellant for land reported him to the Police and as a result the Police conducted an official search at the said Lands Commission. The said search report dated 29th January 2011, revealed that the applicant/appellant’s land by paragraphs 2 and 4 and by the portion marked ‘B’ on the Site plan falls within the area covered by E.I 83 of 1961 and the portion marked ‘B’ falls within the area declared in the Statutory Declaration of 1995 to belong to the Atekyedo stool. The applicant/appellant then caused his Lawyer to write a letter dated 3rd March, 2011 acknowledging receipt of copies of the decision of the respondent/respondent and strongly urged it to restore the lapsed statutory declaration. Furthermore, the Lawyer for the applicant/appellant wrote a letter dated 8th February, 2012 calling upon the respondent/respondent to restore the said statutory declaration by 29th February 2012 that is a fortnight. The applicant/appellant then filed an application for an order of Mandamus at the High Court to restore the lapsed statutory declaration. On the 13th December 2012, the learned High Court Judge dismissed the application for judicial review.

Being aggrieved by the decision of the High Court Judge, the applicant/appellant filed the instant appeal based on the following ground:-

“(1) The Ruling was against the weight of the affidavit evidence”.

The applicant/appellant further filed amended grounds of appeal with leave of the court as follows:-

“(2) The learned High Court Judge misdirected