Plea against cancellation of admission in medical college dismissed

Constitutional bench orders college administration to refund admission fee

KARACHI:

The constitutional bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed a petition challenging the cancellation of a student's admission in Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical College Lyari, ordering the administration to refund the admission fee to the affected student.

In its written verdict issued on Saturday, the two-judge constitutional bench - headed by Justice KK Agha - ruled that the situation was distressing for the petitioner, whose aspirations of becoming a doctor were derailed due to an administrative error. However, the bench admitted that while the situation was unfortunate, its verdict had to be made in accordance with the law.

"Individually, we all sympathise with the applicant," the bench stated while acknowledging the emotional impact on the applicant, but stated that judges are bound by legal principles. The order explained that although efforts were made to resolve the matter in collaboration with the college and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the issue could not be resolved within the legal framework.

In its ruling, the bench pointed out that PMDC is responsible for allotting a fixed number of seats for medical admissions and that the court cannot direct it to increase the quota, as such an action would set an undesirable precedent.

The bench clarified that the student's admission had been provisional until March 31, and a verification of documents revealed that the error was not caused by the student or the college, but rather by a mistake on the part of the Mukhtiarkar. The ruling stated that despite the student's valid case, the bench could not grant relief in terms of re-admission to the MBBS program, given the limited number of seats available.

While dismissing the petition, the bench suggested that the student could seek admission to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) program at the Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC), where she had initially been offered a seat, provided that a seat remained available in the program.