The Supreme Court has set March 16, 2022, as the date for deciding whether the Majority New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) approval of the Government’s 2022 Budget and Economic Policy was in accordance with constitutional laws.
Richard Dela Sky, a broadcast journalist, has filed a writ using the court’s original jurisdiction to challenge the decision of the Majority NPP to vote to overturn the Minority NDC’s rejection of the budget.
In the absence of NDC MPs and the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, who had went abroad of the country for a medical evaluation, the process to pass the budget was presided over by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu.
The writ was issued in response to divergent opinions on the budget rejection by 137 NDC MPs on the one hand, and the reversal of the rejection by 138 NPP MPs on the other, including the First Deputy Speaker who also serves as MP for Bekwai.
When the Minority NDC decided to stay out of the chamber, the NPP overturned the NDC’s prior rejection of the budget and approved it in November last year.
The Supreme Court, yesterday adopted the memorandum of agreed issues filed by counsel for the plaintiff and the Attorney General.
Yaw Oppong, counsel for the plaintiff, as well as the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, both told the court that they did not have anything to add and wished to rely entirely on their statements of case which have been filed before the court.
A seven-member panel of the court presided over by Justice Jones Dotse and assisted by Justices Nene Amegatcher, Avril Lovelace Johnson, Gertrude Torkornoo, Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu and Yonni Kulendi subsequently adjourned the matter to March 16, 2022, for judgment.
Richard Sky’s writ is challenging the decision by Mr. Osei-Owusu to vote in the determination that led to the approval of the budget when he presided over the affairs in the absence of the Speaker.
It is seeking a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 95(1), 96(1), and 104(1), any time a Deputy Speaker or any other person presides over Parliament in the absence of the Speaker, that person forfeits the right to be counted as a part of the Members of Parliament present for the determination of a matter.
It is also seeking an order to set aside the decision of the 138 NPP MPs which approved the budget in the absence of the Speaker on November 30, 2021.
