The Supreme Court is set to deliver judgment in a case in which an Accra-based lawyer and banking lecturer, John Ephraim Baiden, is praying the court to compel the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to stabilize the national currency (cedi).
The announcement was made by Justice Sophia Adinyera, the presiding judge, after all parties to the action had filed their written submissions.
The justice announced that judgment would be delivered on July 22, 2015.
The plaintiff represented himself in court while Samuel Cudjoe was counsel for the BoG with Mrs. Grace Ewool, state attorney.
Baiden filed the suit early this year after the cedi had depreciated against the major foreign currencies and attempts to halt the depreciation yielded no results,
The plaintiff is seeking a declaration that upon the true and proper interpretation of Article 183(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution and Section 4(b) the Bank of Ghana Act 2002, the Central Bank had failed to promote and maintain a stable currency for Ghana.
When the case was first called, the defendant raised a preliminary objection on the grounds that the Supreme Court was the wrong forum, but the court asked that the bank should first respond to the plaintiff’s case before the objection would be considered.
The bank noted that in granting the reliefs of the plaintiff, the court would go beyond its area of legal expertise and that the issue before the court was a nonjustifiable political question which should have no place in the court room.
The bank was of the opinion that to grant the reliefs the banking lecturer was seeking, the court would become either a department of monetary affairs of state or be exercising the finance ministry’s functions.
The defendant further believed that the court would have to make technical monetary decisions including making a preference for a fixed exchange rate regime, if it would grant the plaintiff’s reliefs and consequently asked for the suit to be dismissed altogether.
Mr Baiden on the other hand, claimed the bank had failed to respond to the issues he had raised, adding that BoG had not challenged his data on the poor performance of the cedi.
The cedi, between December 2013 and November 2014 had fallen in value from GH¢2.16 to GH¢3.19 to the dollar.
Other Justices in the case are Vida Akoto Bamfo, Jones Dotse, Anin Yeboah, Sule Gbadegbe, K. Benin and J.K. Akamba.
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