The Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court has dismissed an application filed by the parents of two pupils of the University of Ghana Basic School (UGBS) to restrain the university authorities from restricting access to roads on the Legon campus.
The court said the action instituted by the parents on behalf of their children was beyond the stipulated time allowed by the law.
“The suit is caught by the statute of limitation and is, therefore, not properly before the court to be adjudicated upon its merits,” it said.
Suit and counter suit On September 29, 2014, Messrs Stanley Samuel Famiah and Kwabena Agyekumhene, who are parents of two pupils of the UGBS, filed a motion at the court to enforce their fundamental human rights which they claimed had been violated by the university.
However, the university, in a counter suit, also filed an application at the same court to dismiss the application on the grounds that the parents had not taken their application within the time allowed under Order 67 Rule 3 of C. I. 47.
Ruling In its ruling, the court, presided over by Mr Justice Kofi Essel Mensah, said assuming the parents’ right to action accrued on April 14, 2015, they had three months from then to initiate an action since the alleged infringement had already began and was continuing to their knowledge and belief.
“The three months expired on July 13, 2014,” it stated.
The court said the University of Ghana (UG) had contended that the applicants had demonstrated beyond doubt that they became aware of the alleged interference of their rights immediately it made a public announcement to introduce its road access policy in the daily newspapers on January 14 and 16, 2014, having regard to the petition they made to the university on February 20, 2014.
“It is, therefore, the contention of the UG that the applicants’ rights of action accrued immediately the public announcement was made,” the court said.
It said in cases brought under Article 33 of the 1992 Constitution and Order 67 of C. I. 47, a party’s right to commence an action for the enforcement of his or her fundamental human rights automatically terminated after the expiration of the periods fixed by the rule.
“It is equally important to note that where a party has lost his right to bring an action in court because his or her claim is caught by the statute of limitation and cannot, therefore, present a justiceable claim before the court, the court would have no jurisdiction to hear the matter which, to all intents and purposes, is improperly before it,” it said.
“It seems that the applicants were under the impression that their right to bring an action accrued when attempts at settlement with the university failed. This is an unfortunate perception of the law.
“Their right of action accrued when the incident they are complaining about commenced. Thus time began to run immediately the right of action accrued,” the court stated.
Action of parents Following the introduction and implementation of a road access policy by the UG, some parents whose children are at the UGBS, including the parents of the applicants, found the policy untenable, discriminatory and a clear recipe for the violation of the rights of the pupils whose parents are not employees of the university.
The controversy began to simmer when the UG caused a publication to be made in the January 14 and 16, 2014 edition of the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times, announcing to the public the introduction of its new policy on the use of its roads and the payment of road-user fees.
By the said policy, all vehicles entering the university campus and those using the road passing through the staff village of the university were required to pay road-user charges (road tolls) ranging from GH¢1 and GH¢2 to GH¢3 per entry, depending on the capacity of the vehicle.
The publication also announced that arrangements were being made for private road users to make one-time payments for defined periods at a discounted rate. Such users were to pay GHc400 for one year; GHc250 for six months and GHc150 for three months.
The implementation of the policy was scheduled to commence on February 1, 2014.
Parents’ outcry However, there was a huge outcry against the road-use policy and the events that followed influenced the suspension of the tolls. Nonetheless, the policy on the payment of one-time road user charges was enforced.
According to the applicants, per the terms of the policy, non-university employee parents of the pupils of UGBS were to pay an annual fee of GH¢400 in order to gain access to take their children to school and pick them up from school.
On February 20, the parent-teacher association (PTA) of the UGBS, through an eight-member committee set up by the association, sent a petition to the vice-Chancellor of the university to register its dissatisfaction with the new policy and urged the authorities to exempt parents from the payment of the tolls.
“We have a contract with the university on behalf of our children, who are students of the UGBS, which is owned and managed by the UG,” they claimed.
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