Contempt of court: Blind student takes DUHS to court

She alleges the school deliberately misinformed her about the starting date of classes.

KARACHI:

A visually impaired student has taken the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) to court for allegedly misinforming her about when the Masters course had begun.

Janta Harani, daughter of Dr Vasdev Harani, filed a contempt of court petition, maintaining that the court’s order on May 29, 2009 was not being implemented and she was being deprived of studying at the medical school’s MS programme. She suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, which has impaired her vision.

Despite the limitations, she finished her Bachelor’s in Physiotherapy with distinction. She was first denied admission to DUHS’s MS programme and after the court’s intervention, she was allowed to sit the entrance test specially arranged for her. She passed the test and when she asked when classes would begin, DUHS said that she would be informed in time. But they misinformed me about the date and wasted six months of my academic year, she added.

During Friday’s hearing, DUHS deputy registrar Shaikh Nadeem Ahmed rejected the allegations and submitted that the petitioner stopped taking classes after attending school for two days. However, Janta’s counsel rebutted and said that when she attended classes after six months had passed, she obviously could not cope.

The division bench of Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi ordered DUHS to submit all record showing the actual date of when the MS programme started. It also ordered the DUHS vice-chancellor to file a counter affidavit in the contempt-of-court petition.

The hearing was adjourned to a date to be fixed later by the court’s office.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th,  2011.