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The Ashanti Regional Supervising High Court Judge, Justice Nicholas Abodakpi, has urged officers of the court to be guided by the values of integrity and accountability in the discharge of their duties.

This, he said, was the way forward to build and sustain public confidence in the judicial service.

He hinted that a new charter was going to be introduced soon to bring more transparency into the justice administration system and tackle delays in cases.

Justice Abodakpi was speaking at an outreach programme held under the ‘Justice without barriers programme’ at Kodie, the capital of the Afigya-Kwabre District.

It had been dubbed: “Responsibility and accountability towards an effective justice delivery system” and provided the forum to sensitize the people on the role of the judiciary, criminal justice system, access to justice and the role of the lawyer in civil and criminal trial.

The gathering, including chiefs, religious leaders, youth groups and civil society organizations, was also educated on court processes and procedures and the complaints unit.

This formed part of a five-year programme, supported by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and designed to help deepen the engagement with the people to enable them to have better insight into the new vision and strategic direction of the judicial service.

The Supervising High Court Judge used the occasion to highlight the need to adequately resource the judiciary to efficiently perform.

Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a High Court Judge, asked litigants to have the courage to report corrupt court officials for appropriate sanctions in order to protect and preserve the image of the judiciary.

They should not hesitate to go to the Complaints Unit to get those who might have misconducted themselves punished.

He added that nobody should be under the false impression that judges were “untouchable”, they were liable for any wrongful acts.
Justice Samuel Boakye Yiadom, another High Court Judge, encouraged the use of alternate dispute resolution (ADR) method to settle disputes, which he noted, was less adversarial.

Last year, a total of 149 cases were settled out of the courts through the ADR.