The Supreme Court has struck out an application for injunction on the sitting for entrance examinations into the Ghana School of Law.
This was after lawyers for the General legal Council (GLC) and a state attorney raised preliminary objection about irregularities in the affidavit supporting the motion.
A US-based Ghanaian law Professor, Stephen Kwaku Asare, had sued GLC and the Attorney General following the GLC’s announcement that it would organise entrance examinations for prospective students into the law school on July 27, 2018.
He alleged that the decision was in contempt of the orders of the Supreme Court which had ruled that entrance examinations and interviews organised as requirement for admission into the Ghana School of Law are unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court, in June 2017, ruled that the entrance examination and interviews organized as requirements for admission into the Ghana School of Law were unconstitutional.
The court further ordered that the law backing whatever mode of admission they intend to rely on for the year 2018 is in place within six months.
Subsequently, Prof. Asare in a writ prayed the apex court to stop the impending entrance examination and interview and direct the GLC to follow the court’s June 22, 2017 order to use whatever law is in effect on December 22, 2017 for the 2018 admissions into the law school.
He contended that the new legislative instrument on the guideline for admission into the school which made provisions for an entrance examination was laid before Parliament after the apex court’s deadline had elapsed.
Lawyers for Prof. Asare maintained that failure to pass the law by December 22, 2017 meant the only law governing the 2018 admission process is the previous instrument which does not provide for either an entrance examination or interview session.
He, therefore, contended that all qualified first degree law holders must be admitted by the Ghana School of Law or alternate places of instruction be provided for them.
Legal Objection
But even before the merit of the case was determined by the court, lawyer for the GLC, Kizito Benyou, raised a preliminary legal objection, saying the affidavit supporting the motion was defective as it suggests they were the words of Prof. Asare.
He averred that further reading of the affidavit showed that it was another person, who swore to the affidavit on behalf of the plaintiff.
This, he said, is not known to Ghana’s legal system, urging the court to dismiss the application.
Sylvester Williams, a Chief State Attorney backed the argument of Kofi Bentil, saying the power of attorney filed at the court did not have the signature of a witness.
Lawyer for the plaintiff prayed the court to allow them to correct the defects.
The seven-member panel presided over by Justice Jones Dotse, with Justices AninYeboah, Baffo-Bonnie, AkotoBamfo, Alfred Benin, Yaw Appau, Gabriel Pwamang assisting, struck out the application.
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