Case of 143 Law School applicants, GLC adjourned to November 19

The High Court(Human Rights Division) has adjourned the case involving 143 law school applicants and the General Legal Council.

In an interaction with pressmen after the court proceeding, leader of the applicants indicated that the Attorney General’s response to their injunction was late so their lawyers asked for an adjournment to study same.

“We filed our supplementary affidavit and it was accepted as regularly filed by the court. However, the Attorney General’s response to our injunction application came in late. We were served yesterday after the close of Business. Our lawyer couldn’t confer with us for further instructions so we asked the court to grant a very short adjournment again,” he noted.

Background

143 out of the 499 applicants of the Ghana School of Law have sued the General Legal Council and Attorney General, seeking an interlocutory injunction against the respondents.

According to the applicants, they sat the August 24, 2021 entrance Exams of the Ghana School of Law and passed yet were unjustifiably denied admission by the General Legal Council.

The suit which was deposed to by one Daniel Sackey, an applicant of the GSL, is seeking the court’s intervention to curb irreparable damage that will be done to them if the 2021/2022 academic year of the Ghana School of Law is started without them.

Furthermore, they note that while pursuing their LLB, they heard about the 50% pass mark into the Ghana School of Law.

That this 50% pass mark has over the years been communicated publicly to Ghanaians and the same was done in 2019 by the then Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo.

They also state that before the entrance exams in May this year, the Acting Director of the Ghana School of Law, Mr.Maxwell Opoku Agyemang reiterated the 50% pass mark policy.

Moreover, an advertisement to this effect was published on May 14, 2021, in the Daily Graphic as part of an invitation for applications from qualified LLB graduates for admission into the Ghana School of Law.

In summary, they indicate that the admission procedure involved them passing the written examination conducted by the 1st respondent per the requirement they had heard years ago.

However, the applicants lament that contrary to the above they sat the exams and obtained marks ranging from 50 to 61 but the General Legal Council has refused to offer them admission based on the illegal explanation that even though they attained the minimum threshold if their marks were broken down, they will not obtain at least one-half(50%) of the marks in each section of the examination; A being a total of 40 marks and Section B being a total of 60 marks. Thus they did not obtain at least 20 marks in section A and 30 marks in section B.

Furthermore, the leader of the 499 candidates indicated that despite their application in court, they are counting on the Attorney General for his intervention indicated as indicated in a letter from him to Parliament.

In a letter dated November 1, 2021, and signed by the Attorney General, Mr. Godfred Dame, he indicates receiving letters forwarded to his outfit by the Presidency, from the National Association of Law Students and the 499 law school candidates for his advice.

Also, the AGs noted that the Department has delivered its comments on the above letters and also received a letter from the President, directing him to make the necessary intervention to the General Legal Council on behalf of the 499 students to address the issue.

Moreover, the applicants’ leader informed the press that their substantive case together with their injunction application will both be heard on November 19, the next adjourned date.

The Court has meanwhile adjourned proceedings to November 19.