- "We’re having too many problems with this particular body. The body has outlived its usefulness."
A private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, has said the General Legal Council (GLC) must be scrapped because it has “outlived its usefulness” in regulating the legal profession and education in Ghana.
Speaking on Asaase Radio’s Saturday morning news analysis and current affairs show – The Forum – on 30 October, Addo said the GLC has created more problems over the years, than providing solutions in the country’s legal system.
On Friday (29 October) Parliament passed a resolution to compel the GLC to admit all the 499 aggrieved law students who obtained at least 50% in the entrance exams but had been denied admission to the Ghana School of Law.
The resolution received bi-partisan support after deputy majority leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin and deputy minority leader James Avedzi made a case for the resolution to be passed. The resolution also compels the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to see to it that the GLC enforces the resolution.
Addo said he was “excited” about the decision because “Parliament has shown that they are for the people.”
“I have been emphatic in my position that it was an unquestionable act on the part of the General Legal Council to have advertised a particular method of admission and then after parties have taken the exams you changed the rules to basically limit the number of people to be taken. Our law frowns on administrative arbitrariness and capriciousness,” he told sit-in host Wilberforce Asare.
Scrap GLC
He added: “I am very impressed by Parliament and it has shown that they are for the people. We have had too many problems with the GLC when it comes to issues of admissions and exams. It’s about time that institution is dissolved.
“We shouldn’t have our judges involved in administrative issues when it comes to issues of exams and admissions, it is not done. Our judges should be restricted to issues of judicial matters. If we want to regulate matters concerning the bar the GBA or anybody or party could be set up to do so.”
“They are a creature of statute and if at the end of the day Parliament thinks that they’ve outlived their usefulness just like we amend or repeal laws, that law can be repealed and replaced by another body. We’re having too many problems with this particular body. The body has outlived its usefulness. After all they have only two functions – regulations of the legal profession and legal education.”
Court case
On Friday, an Accra High Court presided over by Justice Nicholas Mensah Abodakpi adjourned sitting to 9 November 2021 in the case involving the 499 students.
The students are in court to challenge the decision of the General Legal Council.
Assistant state attorney, Patricia Ayirebe Acquah, prayed the High Court to adjourn the case to allow the attorney general’s department to respond to the claims of the applicants since the Genera Legal Council (GLC) only filed their defense Friday.
The lawyer for the applicants, Martin Kpebu, had no objection.
The 499 aggrieved students are accusing the GLC for their inability to gain admission following a new quota system introduced after the law school entrance examination had taken place and the results had been released.
The new requirements is that candidates had to score at least 50% in both sections of law school entrance exams to be eligible for entry into the Ghana School of Law. According to the affected students, the new rule was unknown to them before, during and after the exams.
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