The Chief Justice nominee, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, reiterated the Supreme Court’s stance that a birth certificate is just a document when she appeared before the appointment committee on Friday, May 26.
Reiterating the Supreme Court’s initial decision, the NDC and others v. the Attorney General case involved requests to add birth certificates to the list of documents Ghanaians must present in order to obtain a voter identification card.
“A birth certificate is not a form of identification. It does not establish the identity of the bearer. Nor does it link the holder with the information on the certificate. Quite obviously, it provides no evidence of citizenship,” the court stated
The chief justice nominee contends that a birth certificate only serves to record a person’s place of birth and does not establish nationality.
“Citizenship is a matter of law, nationality is a matter of law. In certain jurisdictions, being born in that place makes you a citizen of that country, but in our country, being born in Ghana doesn’t make you a citizen of Ghana.
A birth certificate does not meet the requirements of Article 42 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court ruled in its initial decision.
Justice Gertrude Araba Esabaa Torkornoo, has warned the public against the practice of giving money to specific people to be given to judges in order to influence their decisions.
According to her, the alleged funds frequently end up in the pockets of the people who collect them rather than the judges.
Justice Torkornoo stated during her vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament today [Friday, May 26, 2023] that the public should not tolerate the idea that judges can be swayed by money because it is alien to the legal profession.
According to her, some people have developed a market where they take advantage of innocent people whose cases are in court by telling them that if money is given to judges, it will help to sway justice in their favor.
