Remarks by His Lordship the Chief Justice at the congress of the Senior Staff Association of the Judicial Service of Ghana must bring firm clarity to one issue in the ongoing, rather needless, legal vacation debate. That aspect largely confirms the administrative realities outlined in Parts 2 and 3 of this series.

To active practitioners, the CJ’s comments reinforce a fundamental procedural truth: the authority to grant an adjournment rests exclusively within the judicial discretion of the presiding judge, not the CJ. Unless a special warrant explicitly commands a judge to conduct daily trial sittings during the recess, standard administrative warrants issued by the CJ are simply the routine, annual authorisations enabling designated vacation courts to sit.

Because these general warrants cover entire dockets, as evidenced by the June roster designating 11 or so High Courts in Accra, demanding their total withdrawal is misplaced. These courts must remain operational to attend to urgent interlocutory matters and their own underlying dockets, on the availability of counsel as is the long-established practice.

Instead, the proper forum for counsel seeking relief is before the trial judge. Historically, vacation judges have exercised their discretion to indulge counsel who are unavailable due to the recess, planned travel, or professional engagements.

I have just received copied correspondence from a colleague in a matter where I had filed a vacation application (not that urgent). Having travelled, my colleague requested an adjournment to October. In line with the long-standing practice, his absence will not be treated as willful default, and the court will honour his request.

The mechanism for accommodating lawyers during recess already exists within the judge’s discretion. The law and convention remain clear: administrative warrants keep the lights on for emergency justice, but judicial discretion ensures that counsel’s right to a statutory rest is respected.

You may want to read Parts 1, 2, 3 of this series to better appreciate this final part in context.

Click to Read:

Part I

Part II

Part III

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