Deputy Attorney General, Justice Srem Sai, has criticised the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), stating that its recent resolution calling for the reinstatement of the Chief Justice and reversal of directives by the Acting Chief Justice holds no legal standing and undermines binding decisions of the Supreme Court.
Speaking to an Accra base tv station on Tuesday, April 29, Justice Srem Sai asserted that the GBA had overreached, confusing legal interpretation with democratic consensus.
“Law is not democracy,” he remarked, warning that legal authority does not rest on popular vote but on sound reasoning and precedent.
The Deputy Attorney General questioned the legitimacy of a resolution passed by just 45 members of the Bar, suggesting it was inappropriate to treat it as reflective of the views of an association comprising over 5,000 lawyers.
He emphasised that the issue at hand had already been addressed by the Supreme Court and that attempting to override judicial precedent through a resolution risked undermining constitutional governance.
“To pass a resolution on something which the Supreme Court has already decided and expect that it should take precedence over the binding constitution is one thing that I cannot imagine will happen in an assembly of lawyers,” he said.
Justice Srem Sai also took issue with the GBA’s demand that the President publish details of a prima facie determination involving the Chief Justice, describing it as unconstitutional.
Citing multiple court decisions, he stressed that such proceedings are protected by confidentiality under the Constitution.
“Not the petition, not the conversation around it, not the content of the petition, not the process and what happened in the proceedings should be made public,” he explained.
