Injunction against law school dismissed

By Hafsa Obeng, GNA

Accra, July 13, GNA – An Accra Human Rights Court on Thursday dismissed an application for interlocutory injunction on the entrance examination of the Ghana School of Law slated for July 14 this year.

Eleven LLB graduates calling themselves the Concerned LLB Graduates filed the application praying the court to stop the General Legal Council (GLC) from organizing the entrance exams and interviews on the basis that the Supreme Court on June 22, 2017 declared the examination and its accompanying interview “unconstitutional”.

This was after the General Legal Council announced that it would hold the exams for the prospective students despite a petition by the group to scrap it. The students initiated the action following a Supreme Court Judgment describing as unconstitutional entrance examinations and interviews administered to students desiring to pursue professional legal education, by the Independent Examinations Board of the General Legal Council.

The Supreme Court, in determining a case brought by US-based Ghanaian Lawyer, Prof. Stephen Kweku Asare, held that it had no intention to interfere with ongoing arrangements for this year's admission even though it declared it unconstitutional.Arguing their case counsel for the applicants insisted that allowing the conduct of the examination would amount to carrying out an illegal act in breach of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

However the GLC opposed the application, saying it was the wrong forum if the students disagreed with the decision of the Supreme Court. Delivering his ruling, Justice Anthony Yeboah said the applicants failed to demonstrate that there would be an irreparable damage to them if the examination is allowed to take place this Friday.

He further added that the judgment of the Supreme Court declaring as unconstitutional the entrance exam was conditional was it temporarily suspended its implementation till six months’ time. The GLC is therefore cleared to hold the exams on Friday after which it can no longer administer these examinations and interviews without amendments to existing legislation as ordered by the Supreme Court.

The Concerned LLB Graduates group in its writ prayed the court to declare that “the admission criteria imposed by the GLC 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 school 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 199s Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”