[2016]DLSC2773 • December 5, 2016 • Supreme Court •
MARTIN KPEBU vs. ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Following the 1993 Constitution of Ghana, the Statute Law Revision Project (SLRP) was initiated to revise and rationalize Ghana's statute books. The Statute Law Revision Commissioner (SLRC) was empowered under Act 562 of 1998 to revise laws to conform with the Constitution. Seven revised volumes of the Laws of Ghana Revised Edition were adopted by Parliament in 2006, deemed effective from 31 December 2004. The plaintiff challenged certain changes, specifically the omission of the marital consent exception in section 42(g) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), arguing that the Commissioner exceeded his powers by making substantive amendments without parliamentary approval.
read moreAKAMBA, JSC: BACKGROUND Following the adoption of the Constitution of Ghana in 1993, it was considered necessary to clean the statute books of obsolete and unwanted pieces of legislation and to among others, rationalize the titling of legislation in order to bring them in line with the new constitutional democracy. This was the justification for the bill by which the Statute Law Revision Project (SLRP) was passed in 1998. (See Vol 20 No 23 Parliamentary Debates of 18th December 1998). The Statute Law Revision Commissioner (SLRC) (hereafter simply referred to as Commissioner) was given very far reaching powers to rewrite all the laws in plain English, to bring the language in line with current usage and to be in conformity with the Constitution. The full extent of the powers given the Commissioner would be discussed in this judgment. Ten years after the initiation of the project, seven revised volumes of the ‘Laws of Ghana (Revised Edition)’ were put before Parliament and adopte...