A group calling itself the Concerned LLB Graduates, has run to court to seek an interlocutory injunction to stop the upcoming entrance examination and interview session for potential students seeking enrollment into the Ghana Law School.
The General Legal Council (GLC) has vowed to organize the exams on July 14, 2017, and continue with the interview despite a plea from the group, which was premised on the Supreme Court judgement that declared the process as illegal.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ov3PjtF8UQteLZk4syZtX07PAx0DOgPV”]The GLC in its response to a petition from the group, said “the Council decided that in line with the terms of the judgment in the above mentioned case, the law school entrance examination scheduled for Friday July 14th would take place as planned.”
“Your petition, which includes among other thigns a request for automatic admission to the Ghana School of Law, is therefore declined,” the GLC said last Friday.
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 also wants 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.”
“A declaration that allowing the defendant-council to administer the entrance examination on Friday, 14th July, 2017 would amount to a grant of immunity from the consequences of breaching sections 13 and 14 of the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32), Regulations 2 and 3 of the Professional Law Course Regulations, 1984 (L.I. 1296) and articles 11(7), 23, 296 (a) and (b) and 2987 (b) of the 1992 Constitution,” the writ added.
Background
The Supreme Court on June 22, 2017 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.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin