[2021]DLHC10297 • May 31, 2021 • High Court
TYRON IRAS MARHGUY vs. BOARD OF GOVERNORS ACHIMOTA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL AND THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL
The Applicant, a 17-year-old Rastafarian student, was denied admission to Achimota Senior High School due to his religious practice of wearing dreadlocks, which the school rules prohibit. Despite his academic excellence and placement by the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), the school refused to enroll him unless he cut his hair, citing school regulations requiring boys to keep hair low and neatly trimmed. The Applicant contended this violated his constitutional rights to education, freedom of religion, and dignity.
read moreThis novel suit invites the Court to ascertain the contours of two pertinent rights of the individual: the right to education and the freedom to profess one's religion. Strikingly, the Applicant in this suit is a minor. He sues through his next friend his father, to fight a second-cycle institution as well as the state, for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights. It is very intriguing that notwithstanding the proclamation and acceptance of fundamental human rights as inalienable by the comity of nations, our courts are still fraught with disputes between individuals and the state as regards the extent of the enjoyment of a particular right. Indeed, human rights anywhere do not exist as absolute rights. These individual rights are generally subject to the public good or public interest. In this case, this Court will consider whether the rights alleged by the Applicant before the Court to have been breached have indeed been violated. The Court shall further interrogate th...