High court upholds criteria for MBBS, BDS admissions

Peshawar: The Peshawar High Court recently dismissed several students' petition against the current criteria for admission to government medical and dental colleges in the province.

The detailed judgment will be announced later.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Mohammad Nasir Mahfooz pronounced the order after completing hearing into the petition, which sought the court's orders to declare 40 per cent weightage of the admission process for higher secondary school certificate exam marks and 10 per cent for secondary school certificate exam marks illegal and restore the last year's criteria of granting 50 per cent weightage each to HSSCexam marks and MDCAT test results.

The petition filed by Mohammad Zaraq Khan and four other students said under Rule 9 of the Admission Regulations (Amended) 2020-2021, 50 per cent weightage was given to MDCAT, while it was mandatory for the respective provincial government or it is authorised admitting university to declare the rest of weightage at least 15 days before the opening of MBBS and BDS admissions to public sector medical and dental colleges.

The counsel for petitioners argued that the Khyber Medical University and Provincial Admission Committee with mala fide intentions gave advertisement for admission to public sector colleges on Dec 22 wherein the merit criteria were mentioned by providing 10 per cent marks to the secondary school (matriculation), 40 per cent to FSc (HSSC) and 50 per cent to MDCAT contrary to the previous policy of 50 per cent marks each for FSC exam and entry test.

He added that it was announced that admission would be open from Dec 29. Therefore, the criteria were announced only seven days before access under the rule; it should have been declared 15 days before the opening of admissions.

Advocate Abdul Munim Khan appeared for the KMU, additional attorney general Aamir Javed and another advocate general Syed Sikandar Shah for the federal and KP governments. In contrast, Saqib Raza represented the Pakistan Medical Commission(PMC).

Munim Khan contended that the provincial government and not KMU made the admission policy of granting weightage to the marks of both FSc and matriculation exam marks.

He pointed out that a letter was sent to the health department's provincial admission committee on Dec 8 wherein the impugned admission criteria for the 2020-21 admissions were given. In contrast, the said criteria were made much before it.

He said the condition of at least 15 days was fulfilled.

Meanwhile, the bench also dismissed another petition of several students, who sat the FSc examination for the second time to improve grades and challenged the deduction of 10 marks for admission to government medical colleges in the province.

Salman Azam and 13 other students requested the court to declare formula for the purpose illegal in a joint petition.

They had also requested the court to award three per cent extra marks to them like those, whose FSc examination couldn't be held due to the Covid-19 pandemic and were declared successful based on their lith grade performance.

Their counsel said while submitting admission forms; his clients were informed that according to the admission committee rules, 10 of the candidates' total marks would be deducted from all those candidates, who had improved their marks in the FSc exam.

He contended that the admission criteria/ marks adjustment regarding improvers was highly discriminatory and unconstitutional as the same was not applicable in other provinces.

The bench observed that the said criteria had been there for many years, and if the petitioners were aggrieved with it, they should have challenged it before the time of admission.

It added that there was an earlier judgment of the high court in that respect.

Moreover, the bench adjourned to Jan 21 several other petitions of students related to different admission-related issues.

In some petitions, the students challenged the alleged discrepancies in the MDCAT, which was held on Nov 29 across the country and whose results were announced on Dec 15.

Ali Gohar Durrani, the lawyer for petitioner Hafiza Shabana, said initially, his client was awarded 132 marks, and later, the marks were reduced to 119.

He said the MDCAT results were announced on Dec 15 by the PMC on its website, but they're taken down within eight hours, while other outcomes were declared on Dec 17.

He pointed out that the PMC had also announced that 14 MCQs were out of course in the MDCAT and the maximum marks for the same would be awarded to the candidates.

The bench directed the respondents, including the PMC, to re-evaluate the petitioners' papers who had challenged their MDCAT marks through a committee of experts and produce a report on Jan 21.

-DN Report