February 16, 2023
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Court of Appeal, per Justice Richard Adjei-Frimpong, addressed a human-rights challenge brought by five LLB holders to the General Legal Councils policy requiring candidates for the Ghana School of Law entrance exam to sign an undertaking accepting published results as final, without any remarking or review. The High Court had declared the undertaking unlawful and ordered the GLC to publish and provide review procedures. On appeal, the Court analyzed Article 23s fairness and reasonableness benchmarks alongside Article 296, confirmed the discretionary nature of relief under Order 67, and emphasized judicial reticence in academic-examination administration. Considering statutory authority under Act 32 and L.I. 2355 and the GLCs quality-control processes and policy rationales (including avoiding disruption of the academic calendar), the Court held there was no breach of administrative justice, allowed the appeal, and set aside the High Courts ruling without costs.
ADJEI-FRIMPONG, J.A.: We are in this suit to address some questions of constitutional and administrative law importance.
The statutory authority to make decisions in the exercise of discretionary powers remains an indispensable component of modern state governance.
In this jurisdiction, the constitution and a number of statutes confer broad discretionary powers on various administrative bodies and officials.
There is therefore a constant interaction between the citizenry and the repositories of administrative discretion.
Inevitably, the exercise of administrative discretion impinges on human rights and other legally recognized interests.
Judicial control by constitutional and statutory means, remains an effective tool to check the exercise of duties and powers of such bodies and officials so as to preserve and protect the rights and interests of those thereby affected.
Whether or not a particular body or official has exercised its administrative discretion in manner warranting the court’s intervention is regularly a matter in controversy.
Such is the controversy that lies at the heart of this suit.
The General Legal Council, the appellant herein, is the body that regulates the legal profession in Ghana.
It was set up by statute for the organization of legal education and for upholding standards of professional conduct and discipline.
For purposes of admitting qualified persons to the law school to pursue professional law course, the appellant conducts an entrance examination.
It does so through its Independent Examination Committee (IEC), a sub-body also set up by law.
By its practice, the appellant every year prior to the date fixed for the examination, makes publication of notice of the examination in the newspapers.
The notice includes the requirements or eligibility criteria and the regulations involved in the examination, as well as the date fixed for the examination.
Every candidate is subject to the same eligibility criteria.
The IEC conducts the examination and makes arrangements for the marking of the examination scripts before the publication of results.
The appellant published the notice of the Entrance Examination for the 2019/2020 academic year on Tuesday June 4, 2019.
Included in the publication was a requirement of candidates to sign an undertaking to accept without question, the results to be published by the appellant as final.
The examination was conducted on 26th July 2019.
Many candidates registered and took part in t