GCU students take their complaint to court

LAHORE: Eighty-eight students of Government College University (GCU) filed a writ petition against the institution for failing to register them for the upcoming intermediate examination on May 8.

Justice Justice Sheikh Ahmed Farooq of the Lahore High Court heard the plea and issued notices to the administrators of GCU and BISE. The court sought comments from the chairman and controller of examinations at BISE, the vice chancellor and registrar of GCU and the Punjab secretary for education.

The petition was signed by Hafiz Abdullah, Abdullah Saeed and 86 of their peers. Advocate Waseem Arif Chaudhry, who is representing the students submitted that the university had argued that the students were reprimanded because their attendance was below 75 per cent. He stated that the forms of all other students were submitted by December and the institute had failed to notify his clients and had decided to keep the decision secret until one week before the examinations.

He added that it was only after the students approached the administration for their roll numbers that they were informed that they had not been registered. He stated that although university rules dictated that a student must now at least have 75 per cent attendance to register for his intermediate examinations, it was the responsibility of the university to notify them at least a few months prior to the disqualification. Waseem Arif argued that the action was illegal and against the principle of natural justice.

He asked the court to direct the university and the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE to allow the students to sit for their exams. Sahibzada Faisal Khurshid, the registrar for the university, approached the court without a notice and stated that the students had been barred for the examinations for not meeting the requirements as per university rules.