Halt appointment of new Chief Justice – Former CJ Torkonoo files judicial review

Former Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkonoo has filed a Judicial Review application seeking to stop the consideration and appointment of Justice Paul Baffo-Bonnie as Ghana’s next Chief Justice.

The application, filed on Thursday, 16 October 2025, by her legal team led by Kwabena Adu-Kusi, challenges the legality of her removal from office. According to the former Chief Justice, the decision to remove her based on the findings and recommendations of a committee established by the President under Article 146(6) and (7) of the 1992 Constitution was unconstitutional.

Justice Torkonoo argues that the findings of the five-member committee chaired by Justice Gabriel Pwamang were false and misleading. Excerpts from the 278-page application describe the committee’s conclusions as “irrational, absurd and perverse in the Wednesbury sense.”

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The three alleged findings and recommendations for removing the Chief Justice from office by the Pwamang Committee are false, misleading, irrational, absurd and perverse in the Wednesbury sense,” the application states. It further argues that, “The entire findings and grounds of the said Pwamang Committee for removal of the Chief Justice from office are in violation of the Applicant’s constitutional rights contained in Articles 19(13) and 23.

Justice Torkonoo also contends that the committee’s proceedings breached several constitutional provisions, including Articles 23, 296, 146(3), 146(7), 280(1) and 295, rendering the entire process illegal, void and of no effect.

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The former Chief Justice is therefore seeking the following reliefs:

1. An order of certiorari to bring before the court, for the purpose of being quashed, the proceedings of 15 May 2025 and the entire findings of the Article 146 Committee chaired by Justice Pwamang.

2. An order of certiorari to quash all three grounds cited by the Pwamang Committee for recommending her removal, as stated in the letter from the Secretary to the President dated 1 September 2025.

3. An order of certiorari to quash the Presidential Warrant dated 1 September 2025, which formally removed her from office as Chief Justice and Justice of the Supreme Court.

4. An order of prohibition restraining any further consideration or appointment of a new substantive Chief Justice.

5. An order of prohibition preventing the denial or withdrawal of her salary, benefits, courtesies, and other entitlements accrued prior to the issuance of the Presidential Warrant.