Accra, Sept. 4, GNA - Justice should not be anchored on friendship, kinship or fellowship but should be based on the law, Mrs. Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, the Chief Justice(CJ), on Friday told newly sworn in judges and magistrate in Accra.

"It is important to remind you that justice can only be rendered according to law and not on other considerations." Mrs. Wood, therefore, tasked members of the bench to apply the law impartially by giving each person a fair and unprejudiced hearing. He said this when she and Mrs. Rose Owusu Justice of the Supreme Court jointly administered oaths of allegiance, judicial and oath of secrecy on three Circuit Court judges and nine magistrates including three females at a ceremony in Accra.

The Chief Justice, touching on public trust and confidence in the Judiciary, said the two were fundamental to the rule of law and democratic governance in the country.

Mrs Wood said "Any conduct by those of us entrusted with judicial power and which will be inimical to our interest should not be tolerated." "We need to understand that public confidence in the judicial systems must be guarded and protected at all cost, because if they were eroded, the rule of law and all those democratic values and principles that the nation had toiled so hard for would be irretrievably lost." Mrs. Wood noted that Ghanaians had increasingly become aware of their rights and knew what to expect from public servants and reminded judges and magistrates to bear in mind that they were in the public eye and stood in danger of being sanctioned if their conducts fell below standard.

To consolidate judicial integrity, she reminded them that as magistrates and judges, they were not above the law but rather subject to it.

"Judicial transparency and accountability demanded demands that we should be the first to subject ourselves to the constitution and laws of this land and be ready to give a good account of our stewardship at all times," she added.

On the increasing number of remand prisoners, the CJ said human rights institutions and advocates had expressed their dissatisfaction over the way criminal cases were managed and over crowding in the prisons. Litigants were also not satisfied with the "painfully slow and frustrating pace at which civil cases were disposed off." Mrs Wood said the judicial service expected them to work harder despite the services' challenges.

She promised that the service would provide them with the requisite judicial training to enable them discharge their duties efficiently. Mr. Solomon Kwame Tetteh, Acting National President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) reminded the magistrates and judges of the oaths they had sworn and asked them to protect the poor and vulnerable in the society.

He urged them to take into consideration the congestion at the prisons when writing their sentences.

Mr Tetteh urged the magistrates and judges to live beyond suspicion when receiving gifts, saying "its is the very people who offer you gifts who would betray you".