Presiding Judge of the ongoing legal tussle between Freko FD Enterprise Limited and the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA,) Justice Emmanuel Amo Yartey, on Thursday, December 5, 2013 registered his displeasure at the lack of respect showed to his court by the KMA.
Consequently, Justice Amo Yartey, who is known for his strictness, re-ordered the Mayor of Kumasi, Mr. Kojo Bonsu, and all his assigns- who are the respondents in the mater- to vacate the Kumasi Bus Terminal within five working days following an order of injunction sought earlier by Freko FD.
The high court Judge, who showed no bemusement at the way and manner the KMA has been disobeying the court with impudence, noted that �he who calls for equity must come with clean hands,� therefore the KMA must obey his earlier order before their application for dismissal of Freko�s motion would be heard.
�Under the Common Law where a party disobeys an order of the court, the court ought not to hear the other party until he or she purges himself.
�as a matter of public policy it is important that the authority of the court and the sanctity of its process be maintained at all times. It is too dangerous to give a litigant and his counsel which order or orders of the court are lawful and therefore deserving of obedience and if not must be disobeyed,� he declared.
Justice Amo Yartey stressed that the KMA�s conduct had undermined the authority of the court, and insisted that �the court must defend its integrity since the disobedience of each party affects the authority of the court.�
The disobedience of the court by Mr. Bonsu, he explained, was a challenge to the authority of the court and for which the court ought not to allow itself to be embarrassed by the situation.
Therefore if Mr. Bonsu has disobeyed an order by the court it will not be right for him to come before the same court and pray that the same court grants him a specific order.
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