Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, commonly referred to as Kwaku Azar, has expressed concerns regarding the Supreme Court’s position on Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin’s declaration of four parliamentary seats as vacant.

On Wednesday, October 30, 2024, the Supreme Court denied an application by Alban Bagbin seeking to overturn the Court’s earlier ruling that suspended the four vacant seats in Parliament. Her Ladyship, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, adjourned the case after a day-long hearing to November 11, 2024.

In a Facebook post made the day after the Supreme Court’s hearing, Professor Kwaku Asare questioned the Court’s trustworthiness and consistency.

“Politicians can champion a position in the morning and oppose it by evening. But courts cannot afford such inconsistency. Their very survival depends on stability and adherence to principle. Courts derive their legitimacy from the steadfast, even-handed application of the law. The moment they falter—interpreting the same facts to support jurisdiction in one case but denying it in another—they chip away at public trust,” he wrote.

The professor further added, “Courts cannot extol the right to a fair hearing only to decide some cases in ex parte hearings. Courts can’t resolve some disputes in a matter of hours while others, equally significant, languish for years. Courts can’t enjoin an MP from serving their constituents for 15 months while underscoring the sanctity of representation in other cases.”

He is of the view that the public is gradually losing faith in the courts, stating, “When courts fail to apply principles evenly, the public tunes out, disregarding rulings that may, in truth, contain sound reasoning. Consistency isn’t just an ideal; it’s the foundation of judicial legitimacy. When courts become inconsistent, they cease to be guardians of justice and start resembling politicians. Many of us have already tuned out our politicians. Sadly, too many of us are also beginning to tune out the courts as well.”

“Whither are we drifting, when even the courts that are supposed to be the last bastion of fairness and reason begin to lose our trust?” he stressed.