Supreme Court defers ruling on anti-gay bill

The ruling on interlocutory injunction seeking to stop Parliament from transmitting the anti-gay bill to the President for his assent has been deferred by the Supreme Court.It is the case of the plaintiff's counsel that if the bill was assented to, it would lead to more violations of human rights and a drain on the Consolidated Fund.The first respondent, the Speaker of Parliament's lawyer, however, opposed the application on the grounds that the application was incompetent, that Parliament had complied with constitutional obligation and that the applicant was not vested with any right, either at law or equity to restrain Parliament from transmitting the Bill on Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values for the President's assent.The apex court, which was expected to deliver its ruling on the interlocutory, said it deferred the ruling until the conclusion of the substantive matter.According to the court, the substantive matter will be heard expeditiously.Meanwhile, the substantive issue has been a djourned indefinitely by the five-member panel presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo.It urged the parties in the case to file their processes - statement of case and responses, memoranda of issues.Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, the Attorney General, told the court that the call for consolidation of the two cases was in the right direction, adding he would be filing the statement of case within two weeks.Broadcast Journalist, Richard Sky, is challenging the constitutionality of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill.He is praying the court to declare the Bill invalid on the basis that it breached several provisions of the 1992 Constitution and that the Bill also violated Ghana's laws and the fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Constitution.