Former Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo has filed a new application at the High Court seeking to stop the appointment of Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie as the next Chief Justice.
The suit, filed on October 16, 2025, forms part of her continuing challenge to her removal from office.
Justice Torkornoo and her lawyer, Kwamena Adu-Kusi, are asking the court to prohibit any further steps toward appointing a new Chief Justice while her case remains unresolved.
In the application, it is detailed what the former Chief Justice is seeking.
“An order prohibiting the consideration and appointment of a new substantive Chief Justice of Ghana,” it stated.
She is also seeking, “An order prohibiting the denial or withdrawal of the salary, benefit, courtesies and other entitlements due to the Applicant before the Warrant of Removal dated 1st of September, 2025.”
It also states, “An order of certiorari bringing up into this court for the purpose of being quashed and for quashing the Presidential Warrant dated 1st September, 2025 removing Her Ladyship Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo from office as Chief Justice and Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ghana.”
The former Chief Justice argues that the alleged findings and grounds for her removal were insufficient and unconstitutional.
“The findings and recommendations of the Committee set up by the President under Article 146 (6) and (7) of the 1992 Constitution to inquire into and make recommendations in respect of the petitions for the removal of the Applicant as Chief Justice of the Republic and chaired by Pwamang KDC, blatantly violate relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution and are therefore unconstitutional and illegal.”
She further contends that the recommendations made by the committee “do not meet, even remotely, the standard of ‘stated misconduct, incompetence or infirmity on ground of inability to perform the functions of office’ imposed by Article 146 (1) of the 1992 Constitution as the only constitutional reasons that can lead to the removal of the Chief Justice or Justice of Superior Courts from office.”
President John Dramani Mahama officially removed Justice Torkornoo from office on September 1, 2025, following the recommendation of a five-member committee chaired by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, which found her guilty of “stated misbehaviour.”
The committee cited the alleged unlawful use of public funds for private travel and abuse of power among its findings.
(Link to full application – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mv-_-3Tl_20Mxm6E19Qke468E0OdfC-Z/view )
Court dates for the new application are yet to be fixed.
