Renowned US-based Ghanaian lawyer and scholar, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, one of three persons who have filed a petition for the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, has sounded a strong caution on the dangers of having the wrong person heading the judicial arm of government.
In a write-up shared on social media on April 19, 2025, he said that the citizenry often pay attention to the ills of the heads of the legislative and executive arms of government while ignoring those of the judiciary.
He pointed out that having the wrong person as Chief Justice is as detrimental as having the wrong person as the president or the Speaker of Parliament. "Judicial independence has both institutional and decisional dimensions: the former safeguards the judiciary's autonomy from other branches of government, while the latter ensures that individual judges can decide cases free from interference-including from within the judiciary itself. "Much public discourse on judicial independence rightly focuses on the dangers of executive overreach-presidents who dismiss judges, appoint loyalists, or undermine the courts.
These are real and present threats, rooted in our painful constitutional history," he wrote.
