STATE V. NINSIN AND OTHERS

ARCHER J.

The fourteen respondents were prosecuted by the State for refusing to provide communal labour lawfully demanded, contrary to section 113 of the Labour Ordinance, and were convicted in the Asikuma-Ajumako-Enyan Local Court. They appealed to the Cape Coast Circuit Court and their convictions and sentences were set aside. The learned circuit judge then awarded ¢60.00 (sixty cedis) costs against the complainant and added that the costs would have been awarded against the trial magistrate, had the court any power so to do. The State appealed against the award of costs against the complainant. When the appeal was summarily heard, I decided to treat it as a hearing of the substantive appeal because it was obvious that the learned circuit judge had no power to award costs against the complainant.

Section 60 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1960 (Act 30), allows complaints to be made either by making a complaint to a district magistrate and applying for the issue of either a warrant or…