MENSUO vs. THE REPUBLIC

This is an appeal from the decision of the District Court Grade II, Agona, presided over by Mr. Eric Piesare. By his decision dated 13 January 1971, the magistrate purported to have convicted the appellant for contempt of court in facie curiae and to have sentenced him to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. On 2 April I allowed the appeal and reserved reasons which I now proceed to give. The conviction is wholly indefensible and it is a matter of a great regret that the patently wrong view taken by the magistrate of his jurisdiction had condemned the appellant to an imprisonment of nigh three months before the hearing of the appeal. To start with the district court is a creation of statute, namely the Courts Decree, 1966 (N.L.C.D. 84), with particular reference to paragraph 46 thereof. It follows that it exercises only that jurisdiction conferred upon it by that decree as provided particularly by paragraphs 49, 50 and 51. As a rule no act is punishable by a district court...