Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has rejected a lawsuit from the Chief of Justice, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkonoo, that seeks to interpret Article 97(1) of the 1992 Constitution.
The Speaker argued that the suit was improperly served by three bailiffs and thus violated Article 117 of the Constitution, which prevents the service of court processes on the Speaker, Members of Parliament, or the Clerk of Parliament while they are discharging their duties.
According to the Speaker, the actions of the bailiffs go against a circular released earlier by the Judicial Secretary which strengthens the enforcement of Article 117.
This circular emphasizes how crucial it is to shield members of parliament from legal proceedings while they are performing their official duties.
Concerned by this recent trend, the leadership of Parliament has stated that it jeopardizes the House’s independence and integrity.
In view of this, they imitated their resolve to upholding the constitutional provisions that protects parliamentary proceedings and officials involved.
It would be recalled that October 17, 2024, the Speaker of Parliament declared the NDC side in parliament as majority while the NPP takes the minority position after the seats of 4 MPs were ruled as vacant.
However, on October 18 ,the Supreme Court intervened and stayed the ruling of the speaker that declared four parliamentary seats vacant. The ruling directed parliament to allow the affected MP’s to continue representing their constituencies.
The plea for the stay was submitted by Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo Markin, who requested the Court’s involvement to halt the enforcement of the Speaker’s order affecting three of their colleagues and one from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The matter was examined by a panel of Supreme Court judges headed by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo.
