HYDERABAD: A division bench of Sindh High Court (SHC) Hyderabad circuit has allowed a student of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) to appear in examination and attend classes in the forthcoming academic session and directed the university not to take any coercive action against him.

The court comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Omer Sial issued notices to the respondent LUMHS Jamshoro administration and additional advocate general (AAG) for Feb 22.

The order was passed on a constitutional petition filed by the student, Altaf Hussain Brohi, a resident of Shaheed Benazirabad district, through Advocate Sajjad Ahmed Chandio.

Varsity had cancelled his admission 10 days before first paper

The petitioner submitted in court that he had qualified the entry test for the MBBS exams 2020-21. Initially, an offer letter for admission to the Gambat Medical College (GMC) was issued to him against a vacant seat. He and other students also received conditional offer letters dated April 28, 2021 for admission to LUMHS but did not accept it for being ‘conditional’. He stated that he and the other students challenged the conditional offer letters in court, directed the universities & boards secretary to issue fresh offer letters to them without any caveat.

He said the secretary issued fresh offer letter dated May 24, 2021 to him upon which he surrendered his admission to the GMC and preferred LUMHS.

He said he paid the admission fee, began his study at LUMHS and appeared in five module tests for the first year MBBS. He said he was preparing for the annual exams, to be held from Jan 15, 2022, when the secretary cancelled his admission through a Jan 5, 2022 letter.

He said he got admission to LUMHS against a vacant merit seat of Nawabshah and it was accordingly notified. He was a regular student of the university.

The petitioner contended the Jan 5 letter was illegal and in violation of court’s order and that issuance of the cancellation letter just 10 days ahead of the annual exams was illegal.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2022