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Filing Substantive Criminal Appeals


Every criminal law practitioner, whether prosecuting or defending, may have heard this statement: “Appeals are filed at the registry of the court below”. This may be true for criminal appeals to the Court of Appeal[1] and the Supreme Court.[2] But is this the case for substantive criminal appeals from the Circuit and District Courts to the High Court? 

Sometime in May 2022, I was served with an application for bail pending appeal to be determined by the High Court. The application was premised on a Petition of Appeal (often indicated as a Notice of Appeal) against a sentence imposed by the Circuit Court. The Petition of Appeal was filed at the Circuit Court Registry instead of the High Court Registry and this was brought to the court’s attention.

Arguments were taken to determine the validity of the Petition of Appeal having regard to the procedural requirements for filing such petitions. This was necessary because the Supreme Court has held that the rules of court form an integral part of the laws of Ghana (see article 11(1)(c) of the 1992 Constitution) and must be treated with equal amount of respect in order to produce sanity in court proceedings.[3] And in fact, when it comes to enactments, such as the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act, 1960 (Act 30), any irregularity against the set out procedure may not be waived and may be declared a nullity.[4]

It is noteworthy that, unlike the Court of Appeal rules and the Supreme Court rules which indicate that appeals are to be filed in the Registry of the court below, there is no express provision in Act 30 stating where an appeal from a lower court to the High Court should be filed. The High Court therefore engaged in statutory interpretation and considered the provisions in sections 326 and 327 of Act 30 to conclude that the appropriate forum for the filing of appeals from the lower court is the High Court Registry.[5] The sections read:

Section 326 – Petition of appeal

(1)  An appeal shall be made in the form of a petition in writing presented by the appellant or the appellant’s counsel.

(2)  The petition shall, unless the High Court otherwise directs, be accompanied by a copy of the judgement or order appealed against.

(3)  Where the appellant is represented by counsel, the petition shall contain particulars of the alleged error of law or of fact on which appellant relies.

Section 327 – Appellant in prison

An appellant in prison may present a petition of appeal and the copies accompanying the petition to the officer in charge of the prison, who shall immediately forward the petition and copies to the registrar of the High Court. (Emphasis mine)

It is evident that since section 326 is silent on the place for filing Petitions of Appeal, the High Court inferred from section 327 that they are to be filed at the High Court registry. Interestingly, other High Court judges do not share this interpretation of sections 326 and 327. 

The usual practice however is that criminal appeal petitions from the lower courts are filed at the lower court registry and not the High Court registry. This is probably because in civil appeals from the District Court[6] to the High Court, the rules state that the appeal notices are to be filed at the lower court registry and not the High Court registry[7]. In addition, as already stated, both civil and criminal appeal notices to all the other superior courts are filed at the registry of the lower court that delivered the decision complained of.

It is clear that there is a lacuna in the law which Act 459 (as amended)[8] has highlighted in section 21(5). The section states that the High Court shall not entertain any appeal unless the appellant has fulfilled all conditions imposed in that behalf by Rules of Court. There is no 'High Court Criminal Procedure Rules'. The existing main procedural rules are set out in Act 30 but unfortunately, the Act does not contain the minute details of actual practice. In fact, various practice directions offer some supplementary procedure but these are not binding on a court. This is among the reasons why there has been a general call for the overhaul of the Act or for substantial amendments to be made to same.

Until the situation has been remedied, let us consider the practical advantages and disadvantages of filing a petition at either registry (of the trial court and the High Court). 

Filing at the trial court registry serves as notice for the compilation of the Record of Appeal for transmission to the appellate court. The disadvantage however is that this is hardly done, especially with the Circuit Courts in Accra; they are known to take a long period of time to compile or transmit records; and until the Registrar of the lower court takes any step other than serving the filed petition on the Respondent, the High Court registry remains oblivious of the existence of this petition. 

When the petition of appeal is filed at the High Court registry, a docket will be opened for the case and same will be assigned to a court with a suit number. This means that when there has been an undue delay in the transmission of the records, an appellant can easily apply[9] to have the already opened case docket called in the assigned appellate High Court and can further invoke the power of the said court under section 330 of Act 30 to order for the expeditious transmission of the records. Although filing at the lower court registry does not preclude an appellant from making the same application under section 330, the disadvantage here is that the motion stands alone and will be assigned a new suit number, which may be different from what the petition itself may have; a multiplicity of suit numbers sometimes come with unnecessary complications. 

Note: Unlike substantive criminal appeals to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court which are initiated by a Notice of Appeal, criminal appeals to the High Court are by a Petition of Appeal.


[1] See section 38 of Court of Appeal Rules, 1997 (C.I. 19)

[2] See section 31(3) pf the Supreme Court Rules, 1996 (C.I. 16)

[3] Standard Bank Offshore Trust Company Limited (Substituted by Dominion Corporate Trustees Limited v. National Investment Bank Limited and 2 Others, Civil Appeal No. J4/63/2016 dated 21st June 2017

[4] Republic v. High Court; Ex Parte Allgate Co. Ltd. (Amalgamated Bank Ltd. Interested Party) (2007-2008) SCGLR 1041

[5] The Republic v Noble Aryeh, Case No.: CR/0456/2022 dated 6th May 2022 (HC)

[6] Appeals from the Circuit Court are determined by the Court of Appeal. See section 44(1) of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459) as amended.

[7] See order 51(1) of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I. 47)

[8] Courts (Amendment) Act, 2002 (Act 620)

[9] The appellant can simply cause hearing notice to issue using the case number on the filed petition.


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