Pay GRA ¢10k for your frivolous application – Supreme Court to Barker-Vormawor
A seven-member Supreme Court panel on Tuesday slammed #FixTheCountry Convener Oliver Barker-Vormawor for his role in a case filed by the group and two other pressure groups.
Mr Barker-Vormawor appeared as lawyer for Benjamin Darko of #FixTheCountry, Democracy Hub LBG and Democratic Accountability Lab.
The case filed by the three had asked the Supreme Court to punish the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority for going ahead with the implementation of the E-Levy policy despite an impending interlocutory application that was filed by three members of the parliament.
They argue that the Courts have clarified that the fact that an application for an injunction is yet to be heard does not release any person from the duty to refrain or abstain from taking any step that renders that prevents the court from discharging its judicial function and brings the authority and administration of the law into disrespect.
When the case was called on Tuesday, the panel presided over Justice Nene Amegatcher did not take kindly to the processes filed by Mr. Barker-Vormawor.
The panel first questioned why he had failed to name the specific official he wanted to be the subject of the contempt action and why that official had not been served.
The court drew the lawyer’s attention to the High Court rules and asked that he reads the rule.
Mr. Barker-Vormawor, however, replied that he did not readily have the rules with him.
This did not sit well with Justice Amegatcher who questioned why the youth activist had come to court without his tools.
“You are coming to the Supreme Court to do a case and you don’t have your tools of court here?” Justice Amegatcher said.
The Court then questioned the title of the case that had been filed. The panel pointed out that contrary to the established procedure of filing such cases titled “Republic v (party against whom the contempt is being sought against)”, Mr. Barker-Vormawor had not done this.
Source: Joseph Ackah-Blay
