20 judges needed at supreme court – Justice Mensah

Supreme Court nominee, Justice Philip Bright Mensah, has called for an urgent expansion of the Supreme Court bench from the current 15 to at least 20 justices to address the growing backlog of cases and ensure timely justice delivery.

Appearing before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, Justice Mensah argued that the current number of justices is inadequate to manage the increasing volume and complexity of cases reaching the apex court.

“The caseload is rising, and more people are exercising their constitutional right to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. It’s only reasonable that more judges are appointed to handle the demand,” he said.

Justice Mensah’s recommendation echoes an earlier request by suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo in a letter dated February 7, 2024, to then-President Nana Akufo-Addo.

In it, she cited rising case backlogs and also proposed increasing the number of Supreme Court judges to 20.

According to judicial records, the Supreme Court concluded just 344 of 939 pending cases in the 2022/2023 legal year, leaving a backlog of 595 cases carried into 2023/2024.

This marked a significant increase from the previous year, when 799 cases were pending and 385 were resolved, leaving 414 unresolved.

Justice Mensah explained that under current constitutional practice, an ordinary Supreme Court panel requires five judges, while more sensitive or complex cases are heard by seven-member panels.

With only 15 justices currently on the bench, the Court struggles to form multiple panels concurrently to speed up case resolution.

“You cannot keep assigning more and more cases to a limited number of judges and still expect timely justice. We must expand the bench to match the demands placed on the Court,” he emphasised.