[1997]DLSC2881 • July 9, 1997 • Supreme Court •
BOYEFIO vs. NTHC PROPERTIES LTD
The plaintiff issued a writ at the High Court, Accra claiming damages for trespass, ejectment, and perpetual injunction in respect of land situated at Baatsonaa within the Nungua Traditional Area, which had been declared a registration district under the Land Title Registration Law, 1986 (PNDCL 152). The defendant moved to dismiss the action on the ground that section 121 of PNDCL 152 ousted the High Court's jurisdiction due to the registration district declaration.
read moreSection 12(1) of the Land Title Registration Law, 1986 (PNDCL 152) has received such varied and, indeed, conflicting interpretations from the lower courts as to make one wonder whether this stems from any flaw in the drafting of that section. Now, the object of PNDCL 152 as the memorandum to it shows, is to provide a machinery for the registration of title to land and interests in land. The starting point in the registration exercise is the declaration by the Minister of Lands, in a legislative instrument, that a specified area is a registration district. Thereafter the processes for registration are set in motion by the Land Title Registry. Now, when an area is declared a registration district by a legislative instrument, section 12(1) of PNDCL 152 forbids the institution of any court action concerning any land or interest therein in a registration district until the procedures for settling disputes under the law are exhausted. The problem has been the determination of the true impor...