Court of Appeal in Cape Coast has struck out the appeal by the deposed National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, James Gyekye Quayson for non-compliance with court directives and procedures.
Mr. Quayson filed an appeal challenging a High Court ruling that ordered him not to hold himself out as MP for the constituency.
The High Court also directed that fresh elections be held in the Assin North, forcing the ousted MP to make the appeal.
However, the Court of Appeal presided over by Justice Irene Charity Larbi, yesterday stated that the dethroned MP failed to comply with the court’s directives to submit his written submission within a stipulated time.
The judge further ordered that all applications before the panel in relation to Mr. Quayson have to be struck out.
The Court of Appeal adjourned the case to March 22, 2022, after Counsel for the deposed MP, Tsatsu Tsikata, sought clarity on why the court had decided to use C.I. 47 to deal with the application for stay of execution that was pending before the court.
Before that, the court’s registrar issued a certificate of non-compliance to Mr. Quayson and his lawyers on January 24, 2022.
It was to this effect that they were issued with Form 6, which is just a notice of dispatch of records to the Court of Appeal.
Accordingly, all the records at the high court that had to do with the original petition had been dispatched to the court of appeal.
The ousted MP had within 21 days to file his written submission, but he did not comply, compelling the court’s registrar to issue a certificate of non-compliance.
Before proceedings began yesterday, Tsatsu Tsikata, Lawyer for Mr. Quayson, told the court that they had filed three applications, one of which sought to disqualify the presiding judge from sitting on the case.
However, the panel indicated that such applications were not before them and based on that, they would go ahead to deal with the matters before them.
Consequently, the Court of Appeal dismissed the application and ordered that all applications relating to the appeal case be struck out.
The presiding Judge quoted Lord Denning as saying, “you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand”.
