All set for law entrance exam …as court gives GLC green light
The Human Right Court Division of the High Court has thrown out an application for interlocutory injunction filed against the General Legal Council (GLC) to halt the decision to conduct an entrance examination for law students who seek to enter the Ghana Law School in the 2017/18 academic year.
This paves way for the Independent Examination Board, the body mandated by the General Legal Council to conduct the exams, to carry on with today’s crucial examination that will witness over 1,000 law students justifying their inclusion into the Ghana Law School.
The court throwing the case stated that the plaintiffs who comprised 11 law graduates failed to demonstrate that they will suffer any damage if the court fails to grant them the Exparte Injunction they have filed against GLC.
According to the court, an allegation that the respondents (GLC) will not suffer any injury if the court grants the injunction but they (Plaintiffs) will rather suffer an irreparable harm was not supported by any evidence in their affidavit presented to the court.
“The plaintiffs have not painted any picture that they will suffer any harm if the injunction is not granted, how they will suffer the irreparable harm they alleged in the affidavit,” the judge said in his ruling yesterday.
The suit which was filed by some law students who seek to enter the Ghana Law School prayed the court to declare as void the examination which is scheduled to take place today. Arguments by the Plaintiffs counsel The counsel for the Plaintiffs argued that this is a matter of public interest and when things are done wrongfully, it is only the court that can get things right as inscribed in the constitution.
He told the court that if the injunction is granted then the General Legal Council should rather be blamed as they could have prevented this when the substantive matter begun in 2015 at the Supreme Court. “The matter was presented to the court in 2015, the GLC has all the time to know that there is a matter challenging the legality of the Independent Examination Board which conducts the entrance exams so they should have prepare in advance “The council must blame itself for treating this matter largely by impunity if the exam is stopped by the court,” he said. He said the continuous writing of the examination conducted by a body that the Supreme Court has ruled does not exist is an infringement of the applicants’ fundamental human rights as enshrined in the constitution.
“The plaintiffs have been compelled to come to this court because avenues to talk to the defendant counsel—the General Legal Council-- has been shut He argued that moving with what the supreme court said every law graduate must have an automatic admission into the law school subject to the good behavior of the applicant and not by a criteria set out by an unknown entity which does not have a constitutional power. “The plaintiffs are saying that their right for admission into the law school has been infringed by a body the Supreme Court has pronounced as not known by law. As far as the plaintiffs applicants are concerned the only criteria to gain them admission is their certificates and good behavior,” the Counsel for the Plaintiffs argued.
He therefore urged the court to exercise its judicial power to rescue the plaintiffs from further embarking on illegal activities by writing the entrance exams as its in violation of the applicants’ fundamental human rights.
