Rockson Dafeamekpor, Member of Parliament for South Dayi Constituency, has advocated for a decrease in the workload of judges.
He emphasized that while judges possess the competence and capability to fulfill their duties, burdening them with excessive cases undermines the justice delivery system.
Dafeamekpor asserted that this contradicts the notion that judges are inefficient.
Speaking on Newsfile on JoyNews, the NDC MP said, “I haven’t heard that our judges are inefficient, it is rather the workload. Having so much workload does not mean inefficiency, it is different.”
“You can be efficient and deliver on your mandate with speed. But when the person assigning cases is not taking into consideration the number of cases before you and keeps piling them, that cannot mean you’re inefficient,” he said.
Mr. Dafeamekpor advocated for increased utilization of automated systems wherein cases would be assigned to judges automatically.
His call follows a press conference by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, during which she outlined measures her administration is implementing to enhance the justice system.
Chief Justice Torkornoo emphasized the need for the government to allocate additional resources to enhance judicial services. She noted that the current manual administrative system within the judiciary leads to delays in operations but stated that with proper investment, the entire system could be digitized.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dafeamekpor maintains that while Chief Justice Torkornoo’s proposals are commendable, alleviating the burden on judges will significantly enhance the judiciary.
Lawyer Kofi Bentil, also participating in the discussion, concurred with this perspective. He suggested that additional measures could be introduced to support judges.
Bentil advocated for increased transparency to bolster public trust in the justice delivery system.
Mr Bentil said that “the problem comes from the lower courts and they arise out of a lack of transparency on how the lower courts operate, and the fact that the workload is such that sometimes the judges skimp over so many things.”
“We should put more resources at the lower court, in terms of more justices. When we create that heavy sturdy capacity at the lower court, I believe these things will go down, especially if there is more transparency in terms of the justice administration,” Mr Bentil added.