SAMUEL OSEI BOATENG V. NATIONAL MEDIA COMMISSION AND BERIFI AFARI APENTENG

JUDGEMENT

ATUGUBA, J.S.C.

I have had the advantage of reading the characteristic masterly opinion of my brother Dr. Date-Bah J.S.C. I agree with much of it and its conclusion.

However, I perpetually disagree, with global respect to him, in so far as he holds that this court’s enforcement jurisdiction does not arise unless an issue of interpretation arises. The original jurisdiction of this court stems from articles 2 and 130 of the Constitution. One of its most essential components is the enforcement of the Constitution as an item of jurisdiction in its own right and though it may arise jointly with an issue of interpretation its existence and invocation cannot be inextricably linked to the incidence of an interpretative issue, as a sine qua non prerequisite.

It is common knowledge that the original jurisdiction of this court has been conferred in almost identical language in the 1969 and 1979 past Constitutions of Ghana and has been consistently interpreted in the same manner by the Supr…