News:
AG Godfred Yeboah Dame
November 2, 2021
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice has turned down a resolution by parliament for the General Legal Council to admit all the 499 law students who secured the 50 percent pass mark but were denied admissions.
Last Friday on the floor of the House, both sides unanimously called for the need to ensure the GLC abides by its own rules prior to the conduct of the law examinations, and to admit all the 499 students who secured the pass mark.
The House subsequently passed a resolution to compel the General Legal Council (GLC) to admit all the affectd students.
The resolution also directs the Attorney-General as “the leader of the bar in Ghana to see to it that the directive that 499 students who scored 50 marks are admitted is complied with. We do not want to get to contempt of Parliament issues.”
But the Attorney-General, Godfred Dame in a response to the resolution to parliament dated November 1, 2021 indicates that he is “constrained to advise that Parliament is devoid of a power through the use of Parliamentary resolutions, to control the process of admission into the Ghana School of Law. The mode of exercising legislative power enshrined in article 106 of the Constitution does not admit of resolutions.
And added that the in accordance with section 13(1)(e) and (f) of the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32), the power to regulate admission of students to pursue courses of instruction leading to qualification as lawyers and to hold examinations which may include preliminary, intermediate and final examinations has been vested in the General Legal Council.
