The Chief Justice, has announced that over one hundred courts will be handed over to the Judiciary within the next year.

Justice Anin-Yeboah disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the Annual General Meeting of the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana in Accra on Wednesday.

He therefore commended government for the gesture, “permit me to applaud the government and Members of Parliament for the construction of new courts under the District Assembly Common Fund, the judiciary is now to receive over a hundred courts throughout the country within the next year,” he said.

Earlier the President of the Association, Justice Senyo Dzamefe, had decried the manner in which their allowances are being paid.

He said the piecemeal approach in dealing with their allowances leaves much to be desired.

Justice Dzamefe, therefore, called on government to better their conditions of service as the current state of affairs is nothing to write home about.

The chief justice acknowledged the challenging circumstances under which members work but urged them to try and win the trust of the public, “we have serious constraints as an institution. In a population of over 30 million, we have less than 404 Judges and Magistrates administering justice in a litigious society like Ghana.

The courts of justice may not easily be accessible to the poor or the legally aided litigant. However, we have to do our best within the limited logistics constraints to serve the justice needs of our compatriots.

For example, from central Accra to Nsawam, there is not a single court on that stretch until Amasaman. This should not happen in any civilized society. The same is situation true for Kumasi, from Kumasi central to Obuasi, there is no court on the way and that is a distance of about 36 miles.

The Chief Justice said, these constraints notwithstanding, members of the judiciary need to adjust to them in the hope that government will apply more resources to provide court infrastructure to support justice delivery in the country.