The Judicial Council is expected to hold a crunch meeting this morning to avert the looming strike by judges and magistrates nationwide over the implementation of their 10 percent salary increment.
The meeting, highly tipped to be chaired by the Chief Justice, follows the last warning issued by the judges to the government over the payment of the increment after an emergency meeting last Friday.
As at press time yesterday, information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicated that the council was set to take over the issue which currently appears to be a tussle between the judges on the lower bench and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
According to the source, the meeting was also expected to bring closure to the controversy that could compel over 400 judges and magistrates to hang their robes and wigs by November 21 – if the government continued its games with the members of the learned profession.
On Friday, Aboagye Tandoh, a representative of the judges of the lower bench, told the government in clear terms that they (judges) were no longer interested in the feet dragging of the finance minister because that was creating anxiety in their ranks.
He stated among other things, that several letters written to the minister had yielded no results.
Mr. Tandoh was emphatic that the circuit court judges and magistrates nationwide would abandon the courts on November 21, 2016, if Mahama’s government failed to pay the money.
It may be recalled that in June 2016, the lower court judges issued a stern warning to the government to immediately abandon a planned move to revise their conditions of service.
The judges, who work in the magistrate and circuit courts across the country, said they were being short-changed in the proposal presented for a review of their salaries.
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