The Supreme Court has, in a 4–1 majority decision, dismissed a legal challenge seeking to overturn the suspension of Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo and to stop the work of a committee investigating her possible removal from office.
The case was filed by the Centre for Citizenship, Constitutional and Electoral Systems (CenCES), a civil society organisation, which argued that the President’s actions breached key provisions of the 1992 Constitution.
CenCES maintained that the suspension undermined judicial independence, violated due process, and was procedurally flawed under Article 146, which governs the removal of justices.
The five-member Supreme Court panel hearing the case included Justices Paul Baffoe-Bonnie (Presiding), Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, Yonny Kulendi, Henry Anthony Kwofie, and Justice Yaw Asare Darko.
Justice Asare Darko was the lone dissenter.
CenCES’s suit, filed on 15 May 2025, named the Attorney General (1st Defendant), Chief Justice Torkornoo (2nd Defendant), and Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, chair of the investigative committee, as the 3rd Defendant.
The group argued that no valid prima facie case had been lawfully established, and that the President’s directive issued via the Secretary to the President was unconstitutional.
Among the seven reliefs sought, CenCES asked the court to declare the suspension invalid, block the work of the removal committee, and restrain the Chief Justice from any involvement in the proceedings due to potential conflicts of interest.
Despite these arguments, the Supreme Court upheld the President’s decision, allowing the investigative process to proceed.