The Supreme Court has ordered lawyers of the Speaker of Parliament and Attorney General to file documents they will rely on in defense of the suit filed by lawyer and broadcast journalist Richard Dela Sky against the anti-LGBTQ bill within 7 days.
Hearing of the case has been characterized by delays since July with proponents of the anti-LGBTQ Bill blaming the Judiciary.
But in court on Thursday morning, lawyer for the Speaker of Parliament, Raphael Banaaagman admitted to court that he was at fault because he had not filed the relevant processes required for the case to continue.
“Our prayer is that, we the lawyers in the matter are at fault and we pray that it is not visited on the applicant. We are ready to file our statement of case within the shortest time if the court grants our application,” Lawyer Banaaagman explained.
He therefore filed an application praying the court to grant him time to do so.
“If your lordship grants our application, we are sure that by next week we will be able to file our statement of case.
We noticed that our proposed statement of case is not attached to the application. It was inadvertent,” he added.
Chief State Attorney, representing the Attorney-General told the court that they had not been able to file their documents because of the delay by the Speaker’s lawyer.
She noted that they were not opposed to the application.
Counsel for Richard Dela Sky, Paa Kwesi Abaidoo took the opportunity to clear the notion that they were contributing to the delays.
“We are not opposed, however, this court sitting in ordinary on 17th July 2024 admitted my contention that without the defendants filing their statement of case I will not be able to file my memorandum of issues. As evidenced this morning it has not been filed yet the information is put out there to the general public that counsel for plaintiffs are contributing to the delays in the matter because they have not filed their memorandum of issues. It is not true,” Paa Kwesi Abaidoo noted to the court.
Justice Yaw Darko Asare granted the application for the lawyers to their processes and asked that they do so in 7 days.
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