we shall discuss in this lecture we shall discuss natural justice we shall discuss natural justice the principles or the doctrine of natural justice now when we say natural justice and law natural justice in law can be used in two main senses the first sense is what we refer to as the broader sense and then the second sentence is what we can call the narrower sense in the broader or the wider sense policy the less technical sense natural justice refers to what is fair or what is reasonable or what is inherently equitable in the sense that everybody can relate to sin so anything that is fair reasonable or inherently equitable is what we can refer to as natural justice in the broad sense and then we have the use of the expression natural justice in the narrow sense the known or the technical sense refers to two key principles when we use natural gases in the technical legal sense it's can refer to two principles one is what we call the principle of nemo judex in corsa nemo judex in kosasua and then the other leg is the principle of aldi or therm pattern nemo judex in kosaswa essentially means that no man shall be a judge in his own course or that we refer to the nemo due decks in course as well as the rule against or the rule against partiality or the rule that a decision maker must not be biased so when we look at natural justice in the technical sense we are saying that in the technical sense it can either refer to nemo deutsch in corsa soir or aldi or therium pattern we have explained as the rule that a man should not be a judge in his own course or the nemo due dates in court as well means that there is a rule against partiality or it can also mean the rule that a decision maker must not be biased that is what we mean by nemo judex and then there's another leg of natural justice the other leg of material gases is what you call all the other parts all the altering pattern means that all other sites must be head before government is passed against them so all the utterance pattern essentially means that the rights to affair hearing the right to affair hearing now the main reason why when we refer to natural we have this principle of natural justice it's because we want people who approach the seeds of justice we want them to hurt the seat of gases and leave knowing that justice has been done we don't want people to leave the seat of dances and then to think that a particular dad has been biased and so it is a crucial importance justice is not only to be seen to have been done but justice is supposed to have been manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to have been done is the essence of natural justice so that if we say that it is the rule against by us if we say that our parties must be given a right to be hit means that if you are a decision maker even if you saw somebody engaging in an unlawful activity and you have seen it yourself before you condemn the person that you have seen committing the activity regardless of the evidence you have on record you must make sure you give the person a right to be head before you go ahead and pass judgments so it is not really about whether whatever you are doing is substantively right or not this one deals more with the procedure now the procedure you use before arriving at your decision is what the law is saying that it must be a procedure which must be tainted with fairness and so in that same vein if you are a judge and then you have even seen somebody commission on offense and you know that you saw the person see when the matter comes before you was a judge by virtue of the fact that you have a preconceived idea you already have a full knowledge of the facts and it means that it is possible that you may not exercise some bit of fairness you may be biased in the way you arrive at your conclusion and therefore even though you may have seen the person committing the offensive team when the person is brought to your courts in order for the person to be given a fair opportunity for him to think that and know that justice has been manifested then you're the dad who has full knowledge of the facts you must recuse yourself and you must participate in the education of the matter and so in the case of our verses so sex justices expert democracy our versus success justices success is called s-u-s-s-e-x justices expert mccarthy 1924 one king's bench at age 256 rp 269. this is what lord hewett cj said about the natural justice he says that unlike hoots it is not merely of some importance but it is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done but should be manifestly and undoubtedly the thing to have been done again it is not merely of some importance but it is a fundamental importance that justice should not only be done but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to have been done in a good end and then also in the case of metropolitan properties company limited versus london london is called l-a-n-m-o-n this is reported in 1968 three were three weekly law reports page 694 in this case lord dylan observed as follows and i could now then he says as follows and i quote justice must be rooted in confidence and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking the judge was biased so if you look at these two cases we are all trying to show that it's not really about something whether you have done the right thing or wrong we want to be sure that when people leave the seat of justice they are going to be sure that justice has not only been done but justice has been undoubtedly and manifesting be seen to have been done so natural justice is not really concerned about the merits of the case whether you are right and coming to your conclusion or not so it may be that that sometimes of your judgment show that you are right but natural justice is not concerned about the rightness or wrongness of your decision what it is concerned about is the procedure you use to arrive at your decision if you were somebody who gave a decision without giving the other party a right to be head then you have violated natural justice and your decision is liable to be quest as being known and void if you were somebody who adjudicated upon a matter that you have an interest in then you have flouted the rule against bias and in that case the decision must be rendered null and void so this is an insight about the two components of natural justice nemo deutsch in corsa soir and all the authorial pattern so we shall begin by first of all discussing all the author pattern which is the right to be had or that the rights to affair hearing or that an adjudicator must hear both sides before adjudicating upon the matter the rule of all the authorial patterns now for those of us who are familiar with discussions and stories in the bible if you examine the story of adam and eve in the garden of eden he has been argued that this principle of all the utterance pattern can be traced all the way to the garden of eden when adam and eve violated god's commandments it will be record it will be recalled that when adam and eve went to ease the forbidden fruits the bible indicates that god is all knowing meaning that since god is always he definitely would know that adam and eve have eaten the forbidden fruits but when the lord came he didn't just wake up and tell adam and eve that i have seen that you have eaten the forbidden food so pack your things and leave the garden of eden the bible says that lord ask them what have you done and it was after they had answered and confessed about what they had done before the laws passed that means upon them what it means is that even the lord who is all-knowing the lord whose omniscience the lord who is omnipotent he first of all gave adam and eve the right to be head before he went ahead to pass judgment and so he has been argued that this principle of all the alternate pattern in this order this as far back to the garden of eden where the good lord had to hear adam and eve before he passed judgment and therefore as far back as in the year of 1915 in the english case of local government board versus alex ali discussed a r l i reported in 1915 ac i paid 120 specifically at page 138 this is what this counts how they said and i quote say that those who duty it is to decide must act judicially they must deal with the question refer to them without bias and they must give to each of the parties the opportunity of adequately presenting the case made the decision must come to the spirit and with a sense of responsibility of a triangular noun whose duty it says to make out justice in a good end you will notice that this counts how then in the local government business alex indicated that those whose duty it is to act must act judicially and then they must afford each of the parties the opportunity of adequately presenting the case made meaning that they are recognizing that parties must be given a right to be had so the all the autumn pattern rule essentially means that a person should not be judged until he has been given a fair hearing and as we will soon see when we read the cases remember i mentioned that people have faced this concept all the way to the garden of eden when the good lord had to hear out adam and eve before passing out that you will notice that as we will soon see from the cases that the principle has even been traced all the way to even our customer law and our traditional society when you realize that before an animal is killed or a vile is killed the foul will be given water to drink before the fire is spotted it has been held that that practice is an indication of giving the child a right to be had before that means it's passed against the fire that is how fundamental that concept of all the octagon pattern is the right to be head trace all the way to the garden of eden so it's all the way to our customized communities and we can see that as far back as in the ninth in the year 1915 in the english case of local government boss versus alex now we've heard of the rights we had several times but what is the content of this right to be here now it is important that i mentioned that when we say a party must be given a right to behead it doesn't mean that the decision maker must operate like a court of law where the decision maker is going to use rules of evidence and things like that go mechanical according to one lawyer's landing no no no no [Music] when we talk about the content of all the authorial party or the contents or the requirements of the right to behave there are some basic and fundamental components that must be present it means that there must be a right to representation all right representation essentially means that the person who is affected by the judgment or the system that is about to be made that person should be informed of the police he should be informed of the dates he should be informed of the time of the hearing for him to adequately prepare for his case what this means is that if there is a hearing on a person's face and the person is giving notice this morning that come and appear at 10 pm when you are very well aware that the person is traveling to family for medical attention that morning if the person fails to show up at a meeting and you go ahead and then you go ahead and you pass a decision against that person even though you gave the person an opportunity to come this morning the person was not giving adequate notice he wasn't giving adequate time to prepare for his case and therefore the hearing can be quest has been in breach of the right of the person's right to affect him so when we say all the authorial patent it means that the party must be giving adequate information and notice about the place about the dates about the time of the hearing again the person who is to be affected by the decision he should be given adequate notice to prepare for his or her case again that person must also be giving access to documents that he or she is relying on to make their case so if it's a company and there are some board minutes that the person is supposed to be entitled to to make out the person's case you the company that has someone the person should appear before the display board you cannot decide to withhold crucial documents that you know that are important to enable the person prove his case you come up with those documents they are documents that he must grant the person access to so that he will use those documents to prove his case again when you pass a decision against a person on some particular targets the right to be head means that the person is supposed to know the reasons for the order that you have given so if i've appeared before you you have had some charges against me and you are even given a ruling at least i must know the basis of the ruling that you are given these are all components of the rights to the head if a person is being charged for a particular offense if the person is being charged for particular conduct it is important for the person to know what the child is particulate of the child so that the person can respond appropriately also the right to be helping that the person affected must be afforded the right to legal representation meaning that if the person has been charged for a particular appointment and he wants to be represented by a lawyer he should be given the opportunity to be represented by a lawyer now remember i have mentioned that when we say that you must be given a right to be head it doesn't mean that you should be given right to be head in the formal way like a cause of law what this means is that if you have been told that you have been charged for a particular conduct and that's that they have found you to have committed this offense and therefore provide your extermination enlightened as to why this my actions should not be taken against you when you provide your response in writing they may not invite you to a room to ask you questions but your response and writing can be the basis for this line action to be taken against you and when such this night action has been taken you will not be here to say that you were not given the right to be head over right to be head doesn't necessarily mean that you must be head orally for you to do cross-examination and things mean that they may give you a right to behave in writing that may be enough for compliance with the right to be heard or the author now haven't explained all the alternate patterns and the components of all the alternate pattern it is important to note that when a person has been given a right to be head when you have given notice of the dates of the hearing and you refuse to attend the hearing when the case receives and then others are made against you you cannot be here to say that you were not given the opportunity to behead this is because once you have been given a right to be had then that is enough if you refuse to attend the hearing and others are made against you those others are still binding against you and then the next question is who are the bodies what categories of bodies should be the ones that would be applying this principle of all the other pattern or the right to behave the general rule is that every tribe will now have an to adjudicate upon matters involving civil consequences should be able to comply with this all the authorial pattern principle every tribunal having authority adjudicates for matters involving civil consequences they should comply with this all the authorial person rule it and be mentioned that even though natural justice is an expression of english common law even though natural justice is an expression of the english common law it appears that the confusion of ghana has recognized the applicability of this natural justice principle of all the author and patent in some provisions of the constitution especially article 23 of the constitution article 23 of the constitution says that and i quote administrative bodies and administrative officials shall act fairly and reasonably and comply with the requirements imposed on them by law and persons agreed by the exercise of such acts and decisions shall have the right to seek redress before a court or other tribunal you will notice that article 23 makes it clear that administrative bodies and administrative officials shall act fairly and reasonably and comply with the requirements imposed on them by law and so if you say that you must act fairly and reasonably and in accordance with the obligations impose upon you by law acting fairly and reasonably cannot give you the right to punish a person without giving the person a right to be hit so acting fairly and reasonably would definitely mean that you must give the party a right to be had before passing judgment also important is article 296 of the constitution article 296 of the constitution reads as follows now where in this constitution or any other law this questionnaire power is vested in any person or authority a that the stress-like power shall be deemed to imply a duty to be fair and candid b the exercise of the discretionary power shall not be arbitrary capricious or by us with whether by resentment prejudice or personal dislike and shall be in accordance with due verses of law it means that once you have been given discretion to exercise any power you shall imply a duty to be fair and candid and it shall also not be arbitrary if you say it must not be happy what do we mean it means that you must make sure that you have had all parties before you can adjudicate upon the matter that is article 296 of the constitution so we have seen reflections of this natural justice principle under article 23 of the constitution put and joins administrative bodies and officials to act fairly and reasonably he was saying article 296 of the constitution now say that if you the constitution gives you the obligation to accept a discretion you shall imply a duty to be fair and humbled and that the decision you give should not be arbitrary and should not be born out of personal dislike and also look at article 19 plus 13 also on the 1992 constitution of ghana article 19 was 13 also of the 1992 constitution of ghana and this is what it says and i quote an adjudicating authority for the determination of the existence or extent of a civil rights or obligation shall subject to the provisions of this constitution be established by law and shall be independent and impartial and when proceedings for determination are instituted by a person before such an adjudication authority the case shall be given a fair hearing within a reasonable time the case shall be given a fair hearing within a reasonable time that is article 19 13 of the 1992 constitution that an adjudicating authority that has the power for the determination of the existence of a civil rights obligation he must make sure that he give all parties a fair hearing within a reasonable time and so even though i have mentioned that natural justice is an offshoot of the common law we have seen reflections of this all the author and pattern grew under article 23 of the constitution under article 296 of the constitution and also under article 19 plus 13 of the 1992 constitution having given the broad framework about the components of all the authorial patents having given the broad framework about the basis for applying this all the alternate pattern rule in done indicating that it is embedded in our rules has been an option of the common law so even because i'm under 11 of our constitution the common law is part of the laws of ghana so in so fast natural justice is a component of the common law it has already been imbibed as part of our laws by betterment of 11 of the constitution but not only done we have gone a step further to enlarge clause 13 of article 19 article 23 and article 296 to give stronger fortification to the doctrine of all the authorial patent in the republic of ghana next thing is to find out what are the bodies that has been held as this principle of all the authorial patterns should apply to what are the bodies that should follow this principle of all the other parts i'll do at this point is that i will go through the cases that have been applied so far in ghana and while i go to each of them i'll be indicating the people that the principal hasn't applied to so the first point first the categories of bodies is that the principle of all the authorial pattern has been held to apply to public bodies it has been held to apply to persons making judicial or quasi-traditional decisions and executive or administrative positions persons exercising judicial or quasi-judicial decisions and over there i refer you to the case of rich versus bowdoin rich versus boundary registers r-i-d-g-e mrs bowden b-a-l-d-w-i-n reported in 1964 ac at page 40. in this case a police consumer was dismissed from his posts by a watch committee reporting to the acting under the price of police discipline regulations now what is important to note about rich and baldwin is that the appellant in this case was not even informed of the charges that were preferred or the charges that were alleged against him napoleon in this case was also not given any opportunity to be head in his defense the house of lords reversed the appellant dismissal and pass this on the ground that the decision sinned against the rules of natural justice specifically all the authorial pattern the right to behave so rate and boundaries show that the rule has been applied to public bodies or persons exercising any form of judicial or quasi-judicial or executive or administrative decisions the next categories of people or bodies that have been held to be bound to observe this principle of natural justice is that in ghana the principle of all the content pattern has been applied to commissions of inquiry and on this i refer you to the case of republic versus state fishing corporation commission of ex-party bannerman reported in 1967 ghana law reports at page 536 ex party bannerman the applicant in this case bannerman was at the time before this action was command he was the distribution marketing manager of fishing corporation now a commission was enquiry was set up to inquire into the management of the state fishing company during a sentence some allegations of larceny were made against bannermen based on these allegations a letter was written to the applicants by the chairman of the commission of inquiry and then the essence of the letter was that they were relieving him of his duties and responsibilities as the distribution marketing manager of the cooperation meanwhile he had not been offered any opportunity to be had on those allegations of lasagna that have been made against him at the commission of inquiry the decision of the court in this case was delivered by education and he crossed the decision of the commission of inquiry on the ground that it was an affront and breach of the applicant's rights to be heard and therefore the decision was squashed and the applicant had to be reinstated this is the holding of the court as captured in holding two of the head notes and that quotes now even if the commission or h chairman had the power to suspend the applicants in the circumstances its exercise would have been deemed capricious whether the chairman was acting administratively or judicially in suspending the applicants he was still subject to the rules of natural justice and in particular to the aldi or terran pattern moves this rule was not confined to the conduct of just illegal tribunals but was applicable to every tribunal or body of persons invested with authority to adjudicate upon matters involving feeble consequences to individuals so you can realize that educated in the republic vs state efficient corporation commission of empire ex party parliament which is reported in the 1967 ghana reports abuser is saying that even if the formation of enquiry or his chairman had the power to have suspended applicants in the circumstance the manner in which they carried out the suspension would be capricious this is because as was noted whether they were acting administratively or judicially in suspending the applicants he was still subject to the rules of natural justice and they were bound to obey the rule of all the ontario party and which means that that rule was not confined to the conduct of six illegal tribunals that was applicable to every tribunal or body of persons invested with authority to adjudicate upon matters involving several consequences to individuals so the suspension was crushed because the were not given a right to be had this is the case of the case of ex-party bannerman a usage delivered himself at paid 536 of the reports now on the case of expert abandonment and this is what industry said in their course this principle of natural justice is usually referred to as the audi or terran parking group and even god himself did not percentage upon other before he was called upon to make his defense adam says god whereas i doubt not eating of the tree whereof i commanded thee that thou should must eat i do say they went ahead to see a fools and i could the applicant hearing by suspension will be deprived of a list of his monuments which deprivation is in the nature of a penalty and for some punishment to be meted out against him without a hearing of a side of the story militates against even good conscience such a suspension is against justice and rights the consequence in my view is that there was abnegation of the judicial duties involved in the function of the commission of inquiry or his chairman with a result that their decision must be regarded as of no effect and invalid so you can see in this case of republic versus state facing corporation x factor panama that the court has applied this principle of all the authorial patent to commissions of inquiry that they are bound to also obey this all the author and pattern rule again this principle of all the author and pattern has been applied in the case of the republic versus assault traditional traditional council ex party tiwa report t-y-s-o-t-i-w-e-e reported in 1976 two ghana law reports at page 231 in this case the code noted that the application of this audit or terran pattern rule was also applicable to 150 tribunals traditional councils and national housing chiefs because in this case the queen mother had been destroyed in absentia by the so-called traditional council and the grandmother had not even been given any opportunity to defend herself or having to know the reason or crime behind her disturbance the traditional council have some little no charges against her and then they have been directly destroyed in absentia it was held that what the traditional council did was in breach of the rule of natural justice and therefore same was accordingly declared as known and void so we have seen that the rule can apply to public dislike bodies like we have seen in rage and baldwin we have seen that the aldi ortega party who can apply to omissions of enquiry like we saw in next month now we have seen that it also applies to chief tennessee tribunals like we have seen in ex party t1 what you can see is that we see a manifestation of the words of a usage in aesthetic bannerman that the rule of natural justice specifically or the arterial pattern applies to every body that is exercising any form of administrative or judicial authority that's perhaps involving civil consequences on individuals then it's applicable to you that is why we've seen highest applies to public discipline bodies like you signed within battle we've seen that in expertise and you're saying that expertise if you are another case which explains the applicability of this all the on pattern ruling ghana is the case of abuaji versus ghana commercial bank reported in 2001 2002 supreme court of ghana reports at page 797 now these were the essential facts of abuari commissioner banks versus ghana commercial the in this case he was a senior manager of the defendant bank now following some routine checks that was conducted by the inspection or audit division of the bank the plaintiff over here was giving two queries relating to two separate sums of money paid into the bank account of two customers of the bank now after the plaintiff was said we need to paris the plaintiff in response admitted that he had authorized the payments and that he did the authorization in the cost of his statutory duties now in the banks considered opinion the bank considered the self-authorization to be fraudulent and accordingly took a decision to suspend the plaintiff now what is important to note from the facts is that in the course of the proceedings leading to the suspension of the plaintiff the plaintiff was neither saved with any notice nor the charges of the proceedings however the committee went ahead to recommend to the executive committee of the bank that the plaintiff be warned for negligence of duty and that his salary be reduced by one launch now this was the recommendation made by the committee to the executive committee of the bank the plaintiff was warned for negligence of duty and the salary be reduced by one launch and then upon further consideration the executive committee in this case they went ahead to increase the punishment of the plaintiff once again without giving him a hearing instead of the one knot of salary reduction that was recommended by the committee the executive committee went ahead to recommend four notches to the board of the bank now the bot also ignored all these recommendations and once i had to dismiss the plaintiff on grounds of misconduct and it is important to note that from the destiny committee stage to the executive committee stage to the decision taken by the board to dismiss the applicant for grant's misconduct in all of these the applicants the plaintiff in this case was not given a right he wasn't giving any notice or hearing at all and therefore the action was bought by the plaintiff which all went all the way to the supreme court on the ground that the dismissal was impeached of his rights to be hit supreme court went ahead to quash the dismissal on the basis that it was an affront to the plaintiff's right to be head this is what justice joyce banff what ado diaz said and i quote according the dictum of joy's balfour adul gsc and i'm quoting in this case the administrative body trying the plaintiff who suffered the highest and toughest sanction of dismissal should in the course of fair trial have been saved with proper discipline charges and giving adequate notice of the date of hearing as well as be given the opportunity to be head the near fact that the rules of the bank did not mention this does not believe the defendant of the duty to comply with the use of natural justice and fair trial just as in a civil proceeding proper service of notice on the defendants is a conditioned precedent to a fair trial so also in this case a proper notice to plaintiff is a synonym to a fair hearing of the case against him if this is neglected to be done a final decision would be declared anality and the court ends so you can see that the court went ahead to declare the dismissal analysis because in all of those procedural steps that were for the effect of imposing sanctions on the plaintiff the plaintiff was not giving any rights to be had so the court went i had to know that in this case the query they served the plaintiff with the query was not the same as a disclaimer charge on notice of ongoing design procedures so the query they initially saved them that he responded to was not enough the club noted that they had to rather go ahead and give him charges let him appear before the slap body and answer the travels and therefore since they didn't do that whatever the past was normal and void the next case that applies this rule of all the arterial patterns in gamma is the case of a vessels with african examination council a woman is spelled a w u n i versus west african examination council reported in 2003 2004 supreme court organized reports at page four seven one now the facts of this case are briefly that yet have taken a decision to cancel the results of the appleland and 12 other students and candidates who searched for their examination the wife had taken the decision to cancel the results of that plan and 12 other persons after a preliminary investigation established that these candidates were involved in examination more practices mine was the contention of the defendant that they had to impose these sanctions in order to protect the sanctity of the institution and that according to them it was very very clear that the students are engaged in examination of practice and that's the issues they're so clear that they need not even invite the applelands for hearing and they went ahead to cancel the results once again the supreme court crushed the cancellation of the results because the supreme court held that the author of giving the applelands a right to be head before they went ahead to cancel the results they got dnc sorry um the supreme court in this majority decision and one of the daddies who were for the majority is and after he had quoted article 23 of the 1992 constitution you remember article 23 it was imposes upon administrative bodies and tribunals the duty to ask fairly and reasonable and in accordance with law to begat jesse after referring to article 23 of the constitution said as follows and i quote and this is in the case of awooney versus the phrase to act fairly and reasonably in my opinion necessarily imports a duty to observe the common law magazine of all the authoritarian party another principles of natural justice which is very much part of our jewish students and are implicit in their constitutional provisions in article 23 because i cannot contemplate how a person could be said to have acted fairly and reasonably if he did not give either notice or hearing to another who was entitled to such notice or hearing before taking a decision which adversely affects his rights neither can i contemplate a situation where a person could be said to have acted fairly and reasonably if he acted as a judge in his own course or he gave a biased and perverse decision you see that they get grc in giving their classification why the decision or why it had to be crashed indicated that the decision they took to cancel the results without giving the upper lands the right to be heard once in bits of their rights and article 23 which supposed to give them a right to a fair hearing so for our couple jsc also after quoting article 23 still in our universe said as follows after she has quoted article 23 she said as follows and i quote that's by this article and by this article she's secret 23 the right to administrative justice is given constitutional force the objective being the assurance to all persons the due observance and application of the principles of natural justice which foster do you possess in the stated qualities in the performance of administrative activities that affect them in my view the scope of article 23 is said that there is no distinction made between acts done in the exercise of ordinary administrative functions and quasi-judicial administrative functions where a body or officer has an administrative function to perform the activity must be conducted with and reflect the qualities of fairness reasonableness and legal compliance so these were the reasons the supreme court gave in question the cancellation of results that was done by so what we have done so far in this lecture is to explain that natural justice refers to two key components or two key concepts of all the oteron pattern in this lecture we have gone ahead to few more likes on the all the other important group we have looked at the people that the audio telling person who applies to we have seen the components and content of what the audio pattern will says we have looked at the bodies that the other attention will apply to and you've seen how it has been applied in the case law in ghana and what we have always mentioned is that once a body violates this or the authentic rule your decision is liable to be crushed as we know and void specifically at b337 where nothing said as folks and i quote and if the right to be head is to be a real right which is worth anything it must carry with it a right in the accused man to know that case which is made against him he must know what evidence has been given and what statements have been not made affecting him then he must be given a fair opportunity to correct or contradict them and so as we've seen natural justice or the authoritarian party means that the person must not only be given the right to be heard he must give him the opportunity to know the case and the nature of the evidence being brought against him so that he can answer or contradict them this is our end the end of our lecture on early or term pattern rule and how it is applied in ghana thank you