The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Gloria Afua Akuffo has advised Parliament to withdraw the controversial Legal Profession Regulations and take steps to re-lay it in the House.<\/p>\n
This, according to the Attorney General, is because some processes governing such regulations were not adhered to, adding that the regulation was not gazetted on time, hence the advice.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”vVkTEeUQJluw7blCODxoLUcjnVEBrzuM”]\u201cYour directive to the Ghana Publishing Company Limited to gazette the Regulation after the 22nd of December, 2017 does not meet the requirement of article 11(7) (b) of the 1992 Constitution. I kindly advise that the necessary arrangements are made to ensure that the Legal Profession (Professional and Post-Call Law Course) Regulation, 2017 are re-laid before Parliament in compliance with article 11 (7) of the 1992 constitution,\u201d a letter the Attorney General wrote to the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation and sighted by citifmonline.com<\/strong>\u00a0stated.<\/p>\n Withdraw it now – Muntaka<\/strong><\/p>\n Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, had on Thursday, prayed Parliament to withdraw<\/strong><\/a><\/span> the Legal Profession Regulations currently before Parliament.<\/p>\n According to him, the legislation, which has been in Parliament for over a month now, has not even been seen by some of the Members of Parliament as they have not received any copies.<\/p>\n Muntaka also alleged that, information available to him suggests the regulation has not been gazetted.<\/p>\n The Attorney General in the letter reminded Parliament of what article 11 (7) of the 1992 Constitution states pertaining to the laying of bills as captured below:<\/p>\n Any Order, Rule or Regulation made by a person or authority under a power conferred by this Constitution or any other law shall<\/p>\n (a) be laid before Parliament;<\/p>\n (b) be published in the Gazette on the day it is laid before Parliament; and<\/p>\n (c) come into force at the expiration of twenty-one sitting days after being so laid unless Parliament, before the expiration of the twenty-one days annuls the Order, Rule or Regulation by the votes of note less than two-thirds of all the members of Parliament.<\/p>\n Annul regulation now<\/strong><\/p>\n Prior to that, a group calling itself, the Association of Law students had called on Parliament to annul the regulation.<\/p>\n The Association of Law Students on January 29, 2018, petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo to cause the withdrawal of the controversial Legal Profession Regulations 2017 from Parliament.<\/p>\n The Association wants the President to impress on Members of Parliament to vote against the regulation.<\/p>\n The General Legal Council laid the Regulations in Parliament on December 22, 2017, in response to a Supreme Court order for a clear admission procedure into the Ghana School of Law, and call to the Ghana Bar.<\/p>\n The proposed L.I. in question, among other things, states that the General Legal Council will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.<\/p>\n The LI is expected to become Law this month, February, 2018.<\/p>\n But the law students maintain that if the document is passed in its current form, it will restrict access to legal education.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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