United States of America (USA)-based Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare says his motion to stop the General Legal Council (GLC) from conducting another entrance examination for admission into Ghana School of Law is being deliberately frustrated.
According to him, even though injunction motions must be heard in 14 days or less, his motion filed on June 11, 2018 to stop the law school examination is yet to be heard.
“Whether or not the General Legal Council can hold entrance examinations on July 27, 2018 is an urgent question that a proper panel of the Supreme Court has been asked to answer since June 11,” he added.
He is worried that while the examinations are scheduled for Friday, July 27, 2018, the Supreme Court registrar has fixed Saturday, July 29, 2018 for the hearing of the motion, which is two clear days after the examinations.
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Asare holds the view that this appears to be a deliberate ploy to frustrate the motion and render it moot.
“An injunction is an emergency application. It must be heard immediately as the applicant is asserting that irreparable damage will be done to him if the application is not granted.
“It is extremely strange and exceedingly annoying for the court to suggest a date after the scheduled examination to hear the injunction application,” he added.
Asare stated that the Chief Justice owes it a duty to the country and the constitution to schedule a hearing date in the next five days. “I hold the view that pursuant to the court’s order of June 22, 2017, no such examination can be held, and it will be a high crime if one was held. “It is common knowledge that the court directed that the law on admissions as at December 22, 2017 should govern the admissions to the School of Law in 2018.
“It is also a notorious fact that Legislative Instrument (LI) 1296 was the only law on admissions as at December 22, 2017.
“It matters very little, as a matter of law, that a new LI was put in place in March 2018. It is elementary that laws cannot vary a court order or be applied retroactively,” he added.
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Contempt
In an affidavit in support of his motion for interlocutory relief, he is seeking a declaration that the General Legal Council’s failure to put a mechanism in place to govern the admission of LLB degree holders to the School of Law by December 22, 2017 is a contempt of this court’s order in Asare v Attorney-General and General Legal Council.
Reaffirmation of LI 1296
He also wants the Supreme Court to declare that as of December 22, 2017, LI 1296 is the law governing admission to the School of Law in 2018 pursuant to the Supreme Court’s order in Asare v Attorney-General and General Legal Council.
Stop entrance examination
Asare is also seeking an order restraining the General Legal Council, whether by itself, its agents, assigns, privies, servants and whomsoever of whatever description, from conducting an entrance examination or any other screening exercise, however described, that is alien to Regulation 2 of LI 1296 for admitting LLB degree holders to the Professional Law Course.
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Admission of qualified LLB degree holders
He is asking the Supreme Court for an order directing the General Legal Council to admit all qualified LLB degree holders before the passage of LI 2235 to the School of Law or alternative places of instruction in 2018 as the application of this LI would have been done retrospectively.