Former Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, has filed a review application at the High Court, seeking a declaration that President John Mahama is devoid of power to remove a Justice of the Superior Court from office without recourse to the mandatory procedure set out in article 146 of the Constitution.
A declaration that jurisdiction to hear a petition for the removal of a Justice of the Superior Court from office lies with a body properly constituted under article 146 (4) of the 1992 Constitution.
Justice Torkornoo’s latest application comes in the wake of the communication from the President of her removal from office as Chief Justice and also as Justice of the Supreme Court.
The former Chief Justice, is however, challenging her removal as a Justice of the Apex Court, claiming in her latest application that, did not follow due process of the law and also that the petitions against her, were for her removal from office as Justice and not as Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature.
The grounds on which the former Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo files the application, includes one for Illegality and want of power under Article 146 of the Constitution under which the President John Mahama executed the warrant of September 1, 2025.
According to the application, the Article 146 Committee set up by the President to recommend removal of Chief Justice, lack jurisdiction to recommend removal as a Justice of Superior Courts from office.
The applicant continues that by a press release, the Director of Communications at the Office of the President informed the public of receipt of three petitions purportedly presented for Justice Torkornoo’s removal as Chief Justice of the Republic, and the commencement of consultations with the Council of State, as part of processes for her removal from office.
Justice Torkornoo, argues that she was never informed of the presentation of such petitions against her, but had to write to the President for copies of the said petitions, which were in respect of her removal from the office of Chief Justice of the Republic.
According to Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, to date, she has not been served with a copy of the prima facie determination on the petitions by the President, basis which the Article 146 committee was formed to probe the three petitions against her and notwithstanding the failure to serve her with the purported prima facie determination, the Secretary to the President also communicated the President’s decision to suspend her as a Chief Justice by a warrant with immediate effect.
According to the application, on September 1, 2025, the former Chief Justice, received communication from the President, announcing her removal from office as both the Chief Justice of Ghana and a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana on the basis of a report and recommendations of the Article 146 Committee.
Justice Gertrude Torkornoo alleges violation of her rights, as she has not been given a copy of the Recommendation and Report of the Article 146 Committee, based on which the President purported to remove her from office.
She says in her application that the President, could not,by the Warrant dated September 1, 2025, remove her from both the offices of Chief Justice and a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana for the reasons that the petitions of Daniel Ofori, Shinning Stars of Ghana and Ayamga Akolgo Esq were specifically for her removal from office as Chief Justice, not as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana. Secondly the responses she submitted to the President in respect of the three petitions were in respect of allegations for her removal as Chief Justice and not as a Justice of the Superior Court.
The application also argues that the purported Prima Facie determination, a copy of which has to date not been provided to her, was in relation to the petitions for her removal as Chief Justice, and not as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Further that, the Artcle 146 Committee was set up, to consider whether or not to recommend her removal as Chief Justice but not as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Justice Gertrude Torkornoo among other declarations, wants a declaration that the Warrant of Removal executed by the President dated September 1, 2025 purportedly removing her from both the office of Chief Justice and office of a Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature is unlawful, null, void and of no effect.
An order of certiorari quashing the Warrant of Removal dated September 1, 2025 and to quash same as being in violation of the mandatory provisions regarding the removal of a Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature from office. The court is yet ti set a date for hearing of the application.
