VIDA AGYEKUM ACHEAMPONG v. THE GENERAL LEGAL COUNCIL

JUDGMENT

By her writ of summons, issued on 12-03-2010, the plaintiff, Vida Agyekum Acheampong, claims against the General Legal Council and George Sarpong, Director of Legal Education, jointly and severally, the following reliefs:

i. A declaration that the decision of the Board of Examiners that the plaintiff should pay the sum of GH¢12,900.00 as a condition precedent to being called to the Ghana Bar is null and void and of no legal effect, as the same was made without jurisdiction and also in contravention of the plaintiff’s unfettered right of review and/or appeal against the findings and recommendations of the Ali-Nakyea Abdallah Committee;

ii. A declaration that the Director of Legal Education has no capacity, in the absence of compliance with the procedure in Rules 22 and 23 of the Code of Conduct of the Ghana School of Law, to make any report to the General Legal Council which has the effect of influencing the latter not to call the plaintiff to the Ghana Bar.

iii. A declaration that the Director of Legal Education’s refusal or failure to ensure that the plaintiff’s petition against the Ali-Nakyea Abdallah Committee’s findings and/or recommendations are properly heard and determined, amounts to a breach of the rules of natural justice;

iv. A declaration that there is no legal impediment standing in the plaintiff’s way from being called to the Ghana Bar at the next call ceremony and accordingly the plaintiff is entitled to be called to the Ghana Bar at the next call ceremony;

v. An order directed to the General Legal Council and the Director of Legal Education to ensure that the plaintiff is duly enrolled on the Roll of Lawyers in Ghana at the next call to the Bar scheduled for April, 2010, there being no legitimate impediment or legal obstacle standing in the plaintiff’s way.

The case of the plaintiff is that, at all material times between 2007 and 2009, she was a student of the Ghana School of Law and became President of its Students’ Representative Council (SRC) from 2008 to 2009. In February, 2009, the Director of Legal Education set up a committee (the Ali-Nakyea Abdallah Committee) to conduct an administrative enquiry into allegations of financial impropriety levelled against the plaintiff by some members of the SRC. Purporting to have conducted the said administrative enquiry, the committee submitted its report, signed and dated 27-03-2009 by its chairman, to the Director of Legal Education, which report con