I will incorporate technology, raise capacity of the entire Judiciary-Justice Torkornoo
Appearing before Parliament’s Appointment Committee, Justice Tornonoo noted that Ghana’s Judiciary has always had the best of leadership
The Chief Justice nominee, Justice Gertrude Esaaba Torkonoo has indicated that her greatest legacy as a Chief Justice will be in the area of technology and capacity building.
She notes that it is her dream to ensure that excellence continues to thrive and becomes a household name for Ghana's Judicial Service.
Appearing before Parliament’s Appointment Committee, Justice Tornonoo noted that Ghana’s Judiciary has always had the best of leadership therefore the mere presence of minor challenges cannot delude it of the former.
Additionally, speaking on the Independence of the Judiciary relative to the appointing authority, she admitted the existence of wrong perceptions among the public but added that Judicial Independence is always linked with the law thus as long as judges’ decisions are linked with the law, there is Independence.
On the abuse of the contempt powers by the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice nominee stated that the apex court is the ultimate voice of authority for the over 400 judges in the lower levels of court as such a duty is placed on it to ensure that the justice system is not denigrated.
Justice Torkonoo succeeds the immediate past Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin Yeboah, as the 15th in line and the Third female Chief Justice in Ghana.
After 18 years of law practice, Justice Torkornoo was invited to join the judiciary in 2004 as a Justice of the High Court of Ghana. In October 2012, she was promoted to the Court of Appeal and rose to become a Justice of the Supreme Court, the apex court, in 2019.
She is well known for being one of the Supreme Court judges who presided over the 2020 presidential petition case between John Dramani Mahama and the Electoral Commission and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
She has also made significant contributions to legal knowledge through some of her non-judicial writings including ‘Creating Capital from Culture’; ‘An Uneasy Marriage – the Relationship between interest rate regimes and debt recovery rates in Ghana (2012), ‘Examining the Borrowers and Lenders Act’ (2015), and ‘The Law on Interests’ (2021).
Justice Torkornoo has held several leadership positions in the judiciary. They include the chair of the Editorial Committee of the Association of Magistrates and Judges, chief editor for developing the Judicial Ethics Training Manual, vice-chair of the E-Justice Steering/Oversight Committee, and vice-chair of the Internship and Clerkship Programme for the Judiciary. She is currently the chair of the E-Justice Steering/Oversight Committee. She is also a faculty member of the Judicial Training Institute and a member of the governing Board of the Judicial Training Institute. She is a regular speaker on different platforms addressing issues on law, leadership, and judicial ethics.
