A Human Rights division of the High Court has dismissed an application seeking to stop the General Legal Council from organizing entrance exams and interviews for potential law students seeking enrollment into the Ghana School of Law.
A group of law graduates calling themselves the Concerned LLB Graduates had gone to the court to seek an injunction to stop the exams scheduled for July 14, 2017.
This was after the General Legal Council declared that it would hold the exams for the prospective students despite a petition by the group to scrap it.
The group said it decided to pursue the matter in court to seek clarity and also get the Council to cancel the examination.
According to the presiding judge, Justice Anthony Yeboah the applicants failed to demonstrate that there would be an irreparable damage if the examination is allowed to take place on Friday.
He further added that the judgment of the Supreme Court declaring as unconstitutional the entrance exam was conditional as it temporarily suspended its implementation till six months time.
The Concerned LLB Graduates group in its writ prayed the court to declare that “the admission criteria imposed by the Council in terms of an entrance examination and an interview for admission into the Ghana School of Law since 2015 contravene the provisions of Act 32 and L.I. 1296.”
The group had also wanted an order from the court to compel the Council allow automatic admission into the Ghana School of Law since to it the policy infringes on the fundamental human rights of students.
“A further declaration that plaintiffs and persons with the requisite qualification in terms of law (i.e. Act 32 and L.I. 1296) automatically qualify for admission into the Ghana School of Law. An order of court setting aside the unlawful criteria complained off as illegal and unconstitutional and an infringement upon the plaintiff’s fundamental human rights enshrined in the 199 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”
Supreme Court order
The High Court’s ruling comes on the back of a judgement by the Supreme Court on June 22, 2017 which declared as unconstitutional the entrance exams and interview session before admitting new students into the Ghana Law School.
According to the court, in a case brought before it by Professor Kwaku Asare, a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, in 2015, the requirements were in violation of the Legislative Instrument 1296 which gives direction for the mode of admission.
The Justices in delivering their judgment, also indicated that their order should not take retrospective effect, but should be implemented in six months, when admissions for the 2018 academic year begins.
This prompted the group to call on the General Legal Council to scrap the exams and the interview.
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By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana