Supreme Court Gives Wesley Girls High School 14 Days to Respond to Religious Policy Allegations
- Wesley Girls Senior High School has 14 days to respond to the lawsuit accusing it of religious discrimination
- The school has been hauled to the Supreme Court by a lawyer, Shafic Osman, who is seeking legal redress
- The Attorney General is defending Wesley Girls' High School in the case at the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has given the Board of Directors of Wesley Girls Senior High School 14 days to respond to allegations of religious discrimination.
In court on November 25, the seven-member panel hearing the case said it needed the response to establish the facts in the case.
Source: Facebook
The lawsuit from a lawyer, Shafic Osman, accused Wesley Girls Senior High School of preventing Muslim girls from practising their religion.
Osman noted that muslim students were prevented from fasting during Ramadan and observing other Islamic practices.
He has argued that it violates constitutional protections for religious freedom.
The school has faced similar accusations from old muslim students in the past.
What happened during first Wesley Girls hearing?
3News reported that during the first hearing, the Deputy Attorney-General, Dr Justice Srem-Sai, who represented the Ministry of Education, was allowed to file an amended statement of case.
In a related development, Democracy Hub, represented by Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has applied to offer information to the court on the determination of the matter.
Democracy Hub is looking to become a friend of the case filed by Osman and Adom News reported that this would be accepted by the court.
The panel, before adjourning the matter indefinitely, urged all parties to limit discussing and analysing the case on social media.
Attorney General's argument for Wesley Girls
In the amended statement of case, the Attorney-General is arguing that Wesley Girls' High School is owned by the Methodist Church and not the state.
It believes this gives it the right to practice its religion in line with the Methodist Christian Faith.
According to the proposed statement of case attached to the motion for amendment, the Attorney General has argued that Wesley Girls High School, a missionary-founded school, has the right to practice its religion of Methodist Christian Faith, consistent with the Canadian case of LOYOLA HIGH SCHOOL vs. QUEBEC (ATTORNEY-GENERAL) [2015] 1 S.C.R 613 SC.
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The Attorney-General is also relying on the Bomfeh vs National Cathedral case and argued that Wesley Girls High School is entitled to government funding despite its character of religious ownership and that the State cannot take away the religious rights of the school on the grounds of receipt of government funding.
Man calls for Ayine's sacking
YEN.com.gh reported that a citizen called for Ayine's dismissal over his role in the discrimination lawsuit.
In a video sighted by YEN.com.gh, the man accused Ayine of trying to create chaos in the country.
He then went ahead to play old videos of President John Mahama speaking about what he termed religious discrimination against Muslim girls, where some Muslims were allegedly forced to attend church services in schools.
Proofreading by Samuel Gitonga, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
