The Judiciary has denied reports the Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood is on leave.
In a response to a letter written by Member of Parliament for Effutu Alexander Afenyo Markin, the Judicial Secretary Alex B. Opoku Acheampong said the Chief Justice is out of the country on official duties and the senior most judge on the Supreme Court, William Atuguba is acting in her stead.
The MP had written to the Judicial Secretary to find out if the Chief Justice was on leave and whether somebody was acting.
He also wanted to know if the person acting had duly been sworn into office to act as CJ.
But Alex Acheampong in his response said Justice William Atuguba was acting in the absence of the Chief Justice but did not say whether or not he was officially sworn into office in an acting capacity.
In a subsequent interview with Joy News, the MP said the need to be sworn into office, even in an acting capacity, has become important due to a Supreme Court ruling in the case in which the Speaker of Parliament declined being sworn into office as acting president.
The court ruled that the Speaker acted in contravention of the law when he refused to be sworn into office. It said he must officially be sworn into office as president before he acts in that capacity in the absence of the preisdent and his vice.
Afenyo Markin believes the same principle must be upheld by the members of the Judiciary who are custodians of the law.
That, he insisted is crucial for the administration of justice in Ghana
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