PESHAWAR, July 2: A full bench of the Peshawar High Court on Friday accepted five identical writ petitions filed by students of different medical colleges and declared that students, who had failed in two subjects in their first year were entitled to appear in the second-year examinations.

Petitioners had challenged orders of the administrations of the Ayub, Saidu and Khyber medical colleges which had barred students, who had failed in two subjects in their first-year examination of the first professional, from appearing in the second-year examinations.

The petitioners contended that both the first- and second- year examinations belonged to first professional class and as such did not constitute examinations of two different classes. They contended that clearing of the first year examinations did not amount to being promoted to the next class.

The high court's full bench comprised Justice Tariq Pervez, Justice Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan. The bench had reserved its order a few days ago which was pronounced by Justice Dost Mohammad on Friday.

Syed Asif Shah, Asthagfirullah Khan and Abdul Sattar Khan appeared for the petitioners, NWFP's advocate-general barrister Jehanzeb Raheem appeared for the government, whereas Aziz Akhter Chughtai and Waseemuddin Khattak represented the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and Khyber Medical College, respectively.

The petitions were filed by Qadir Khan, Ms Khuda Waris, Ms Ayesha Sami, Alaptageen Khan and Hambal Ghafari. All of them belong to different medical colleges and had failed in different subjects in the Ist year exam of Ist profession class.

The administration of their respective colleges ordered that they could not appear in the 2nd year exam unless they clear those subjects. The petitioners counsel argued that the Ist profession was bifurcated into 1st and 2nd year.

They added that Ist and 2nd years were not separate classes rather they were part of same class, which is Ist professional. They argued that according to the prospectus of these colleges, students could not appear in examination of the next class unless he or she cleared the exam of the previous class, adding that there was a difference of definition regarding a class and an year in these colleges and, therefore, they should be allowed to appear in examination for next year.