Supreme Court dismisses stay of proceedings against Indian businessman

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an application for stay of proceedings filed by the state against an Indian Businessman, Ashok Kumar Sivaram.

The five member panel presided over by Justice Sophia Adinyira described the application for stay of proceedings as incompetent because there was no appeal pending to warrant the stay.
The apex court however did not award any cost.
    
Representatives of the Ministry of the Interior and the Comptroller of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) were not in court.
   
There was also no legal representation from the Attorney General’s Department.
   
Mr Gary Nimako Marfo, who represented Sivaram prayed the court to look at the processes before it and dismiss same.
   
According to Mr Marfo there was no appeal pending at the Court of Appeal to warrant the Supreme Court to grant the stay of proceedings.
   
On September 18, this year a High Court in Accra ordered GIS to restore the Residence and Work Permit of Mr. Ashok Kumar Sivaram, the Indian businessman within seven days.
   
Granting an order of Mandamus filed by Mr Sivaram against the Service, the Court also ordered the GIS’s assigns, agents and servants to desist from harassing him until his application before the Service was duly processed.
   
On June 1, this year, the GIS following an order by the Interior Ministry, deported Mr Sivaram on the premise that he had forged his marriage certificate in an application for citizenship.
   
The Indian businessman, therefore, contested his deportation by filing a judicial review.
   
Mr Justice Kweku Ackah-Boafo, presiding at the High Court upheld the businessman’s application and quashed his deportation order on July 31, this year, on the grounds that the Interior Ministry exceeded its jurisdiction.

Source: GNA