NTS test stays, rules SHC

Sindh govt's notifications regarding cancellation of results quashed

KARACHI: Quashing the Sindh government's notifications annulling results of last month's entry tests conducted by the National Testing Service, the Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered on Tuesday the relevant authorities and departments to proceed with admissions to the MBBS and BDS programmes in public sector medical colleges and universities.

The court also ordered for the conclusion of the admissions in expeditious manner allowing extension of deadlines if it was required.

The court also restrained the respondents and all concerned authorities and institutions from acting in any manner contrary to the above order.

These orders and directives came in a 21-page judgment announced by a two-judge bench, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar on a set of petitions.



A set of two petitions had challenged the health department's notification issued on October 26, 2017, through which an inquiry committee was set up to probe into the allegations of leakage of the question paper before the test was held.

The petitions had also challenged another notification dated November 11, 2017, through which the chief minister, on the basis of the inquiry committee report, had cancelled the admission test results and directed  it to be held again.

The petitioners had argued that the test was properly conducted and pleaded to the court that it should be upheld.

The judges were informed that the test was held under, and as mandated by, the MBBS and BDS (Admissions, House job and Internship) Regulations, 2006, which have been framed under the Section 33(2) of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Ordinance, 1962.



It was argued that the Regulation 4 sets up a committee in and for each province. In particular, sub-regulation (2) of the Regulation 4 states that a provincial committee "shall have powers to oversee and monitor the entire admission process and ensure transparent conduct of admission test in its area of jurisdiction".

"Neither, the health department of any provincial government nor the chief minister of any province figured anywhere in the process, and thus they had no jurisdiction to conduct any inquiry into or investigate any objection taken to the admission test or to cancel the same," it was argued. The lawyer added that the power lay only where the 2016 Regulations placed it, in the bodies set up in terms of Regulations 3 and 4.

"Although the latter provided that the health secretary was to be the chairperson of the provincial committee, learned counsel submitted that that did not mean that the health department was entitled or empowered to act. The entire action taken was thus fundamentally without jurisdiction, and this submission constituted the heart of learned counsel's case," the judges wrote in the order.

In the second set of petitions, it was alleged that some of the questions in the test were outside the prescribed syllabus. According to the lawyer, there were not less than 14 such questions.



The court was told that the petitioner, who was one of the candidates, had made a complaint to the NTS in this regard but no reply had been given.

On the court's query as to whether the questions were outside the syllabus could be taken up in the constitutional jurisdiction, the petitioners' lawyer relied on the report prepared by the inquiry committee set up by the health department.

It was argued that the report clearly showed that quite a few questions were outside the prescribed syllabus.

The judges observed that "even if the constitution of the committee suffered from any legal infirmities (a view to which learned counsel did not subscribe) nonetheless its findings of fact ought to be given due consideration and proper weight by the Court. Since serious and credible doubts had been cast on the test as conducted, learned counsel submitted that there was a sufficient basis for scrapping the same and holding the test afresh."

 

NTS's stance

The lawyer representing the NTS argued that the NTS entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Dow University of Health Sciences for conducting the test.



Referring to various clauses of the MoU, the lawyer emphasised that the NTS took all necessary steps necessary to ensure the secrecy and transparency of the test.

"NTS had very good experience and background in conducting such tests, and had developed a countrywide reputation in this regard," the lawyer claimed, adding that the NTS had even conducted such tests for the high courts, including the SHC.

It was argued that after the admission test on October 22 and responding to certain concerns expressed in relation thereto, the NTS on its own initiative had set up an internal inquiry committee for carrying out a thorough investigation. "The possibility of a "leakage" of the admission test (certainly before the date thereof, which was all that mattered) was categorically ruled out," the lawyer maintained, making a reference to the clear findings of the committee based on a thorough forensic examination.

Regarding the claim that some of the questions were outside the syllabus prescribed for the test, the NTS lawyer said the committee report refuted that allegation too. "Thus, the allegations leveled against NTS and/or the conduct of the tests was completely baseless. The admission test was held in a proper manner, and ought to be upheld and applied," it was pleaded.