Law students sue Attorney General, GLC over entrance exams

Some law students who sat for the July 2019 Ghana School of Law entrance exam have sued the General Legal Council and the Attorney General.

The students who filed the suit at an Accra High Court are among other things seeking an order that the undertaking they signed ahead of the exams is null and void.

The students complained that prior to the exams they were compelled to sign an undertaking that they will accept the results without seeking review.

“The applicants state that, the undertaking imposed by the General Legal Council on candidates including the applicants, is arbitrary, unreasonable and without legal basis. The applicants state further that the General Legal Council has failed to provide sufficient clarity that gives dissatisfied candidates the opportunity to seek a review of the examination results.”

They are among other things seeking a declaration that “the failure, refusal or neglect of the General Legal Council to publish a procedure for remarking the examination papers of the applicants is arbitrary, unlawful, null void, and of no effect.”

They are also seeking an order directed at the General Legal Council to provide sufficient clarity that gives dissatisfied candidates the opportunity “to seek a review or remark of their examination results.”

“An order directed at the General Legal Council to publish the procedure for remarking the examination papers of the applicants within seven days.”

Mass failure

The Ghana School of Law last month recorded a case of mass examination failure where only 128 students out of 1,820 prospective students failed the entrance exams.

The President of the Student Representative Council of the Ghana School of Law, Jonathan Alua, said they are hopeful that the court will grant the reliefs.

“The reliefs they are asking for includes a declaration that the undertaken they signed that bars them from challenging the exam results is in violation of their rights to fairness under article 23 of the Constitution.”

Speaking on the status of the petition they recently presented to President Akufo-Addo after a demonstration to review the existing legal education regime in the country, Jonathan Alua, said “Our understanding is that something is being done so we are hoping that very soon we will get positive results. We are still asking that in the short term, we should set up a commission of enquiry to review legal education,” he said.

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