Chief Justice asked to probe Court Registrar for dishonest conduct

The Tamale High Court presided over by Justice Kenneth Edem Kudjordjie has asked the Regional Administrative Officer of the Judicial Service to refer the conduct of a Registrar, Mohammed Musah, to the Chief Justice for investigations.

Justice Kudjordie says the Registrar’s conduct is not worthy of being tagged with the label of honesty.

This conclusion was reached by the court in the case of Abubakari Iddi vrs Zakariah Alhassan and three others.

This dispute bothered an attempt to recover the outstanding debt through the possession and possible sale of a house.

The court presided over by a different judge had earlier granted one of the parties the right to initiate court processes to possess a House situated at Zamigu Tamale.

The court was, however, asked to use its powers set this order aside because it was issued when there was a pending request that the court processes be put on hold.

Key to resolving this dispute was the question of whether there was indeed a pending court process at the time the court gave its order.

Both sides to the dispute had a document showing a search conducted at the registry of the High Court to answer this crucial question.

One side’s document showed there was a pending case while the other side’s document showed there wasn’t any such pending case and that the only outstanding case had been struck out by the court.

The Registrar was invited by the court to provide some clarity on the matter.

He told the court the document claiming there was no pending court processes did not emanate from his office since it did not bear his signature.

For the other document, the registrar told the court it had his stamp and signature, hence emanating from his office.

When asked who is responsible for issuing such documents, the Registrar said he was the one authorised to do so. He told the court he has never delegated such a duty to anyone.

The registrar, however, admitted during court proceedings that the unsigned document was his handwriting but one letter had been altered.

“Yes, it is my handwriting but if you look at question 3, how I write the letter “Y” has been altered”.

The court was thus left with no choice but to answer the question of which of the two documents in dispute was authentic.

It, therefore, checked the official court records capturing the proceedings of the case to answer this.

It found quite strangely that the unsigned and unstamped document was rather a true reflection of the state of affairs.

“The attempt by the Registrar to downplay exhibit D is most unfortunate and can be viewed as an attempt to justify his false answers on exhibit c.

“In furtherance of his ignominious objective, he deliberately did not sign and affix his stamp on exhibit D but truth like cork always floats in the water. His attempt to put a label of authenticity on Exhibit C backfired.

“The most reprehensible aspect of his conduct is to impugn the integrity of the search of Alhaji Mohammed Abdullai Esq,” the judge stated.

He thus concluded that the court was misled.

“I also find that the court was misled by exhibit C of the defendant which was a product of dishonest conduct of the Registrar of the High Court Tamale and the dishonest conduct concealing vital information relevant to the consideration of the application.”

He, therefore, directed that the Chief Justice is asked to investigate the matter.