Renowned Constitutional Legal Attorney, Mr. Frank Agyapong has stated that, filing an interlocutory injunction in court, automatically does not start operating.
According to the lawyer, it is when a Defendant is served with the writs before the cause of the injunction will take place.
His comments comes after some NDC legislators in Ghana’s Parliament filed an interlocutory injunction against the AG in the implementation of the controversial E-levy bill.
Explaining the modus of operandi of court proceedings, he said, one may go to court and ask for an injunction after which the court will decide whether to grant the application and issue date for the matter to be discussed.
He added that, serving is when a bailiff of the court has been served with the application, indicating whom the plaintiff request that the court places an injunction on.
“The fact that you’ve filed an injunction does not mean it starts operating, it is when you serve. There is a difference between filing and serving. Filing means you go to court, tell the court that this is what I want and the court will stamp it, you will be handed date and serving means that Bailiff is handed the stamped injunction and then the bailiff will look for whoever is implicated in the injunction and so there is a difference”.
Furthermore, he said, immediately an injunction is served on the appropriate Defendant, the person must be cautious in taking any steps.
The lawyer noted that the legal attorneys of the Defendant may have to caution its client after it is served with the writ.
According to the Lawyer, the interlocutory injunction can only take effect after the court rules and accept the injunction request, but however, when one file and serve, the lawyers duty will be to advice his client to hold on but does not mean the application has taken effect.
Meanwhile, the controversial E-levy bill will start operating on May 1.
The Supreme court says it will sit on the E-levy injunction application to discuss whether or not to accept the injunction on May 4.
Lawyer Frank Agyapong advised that due to the short days between the implementation of the E-levy and the Supreme Court sitting on the injunction, the Attorney-General may have to wait because the writ has been served.
According to him, the Attorney-General can pray to the court to allow the implementation to go on whiles they proceed to discuss the matter.
“Because the days are really short, he has to wait because it has been served and you have to appear before the Supreme Court and tell the court to allow the proceedings to go on whiles they continue with the E-levy implementation and thus, you will seek further directions from the court based on the fact that has been written on the Affidavit then the court can decide”.
