MULTAN, Sept 6: The Lahore High Court’s Multan Bench on Thursday issued notices to the University of Health Sciences, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, the Ministry of Health and the administration of the Multan Medical and Dental College for refusing to register about two dozen students for examination.

Twenty-two students filed a petition (No 11495) in the Lahore High Court’s Multan Bench, stating that the college started classes in 2008-2009 with particular allocation of 100 students for MBBS and 50 for BDS.

They said that being fresh qualified students they appeared in entrance test before getting admission to BDS classes and after some time, they were informed about their admissions. Their classes started in October 2011.

They said after completion of educational year when the college started preparing list of students for first annual examination, the office disclosed that only 51 students had been admitted and their list was sent to the UHS.

They said some of them on protest were asked to deposit fee for second session in advance. The college administration claimed that the forms of the petitioners were stopped as they could not pass pre-assessment test, though the PMDC and the UHS said there was no legal requirement to pass such test.

They said the UHS also claimed that not a single petitioner had been registered by the college. They said their examination was scheduled to be held on Sept 17 but all institutions were not expediting their case.

They said if any mistake or excess of quota in admissions given by the PMDC was committed, penalty could be imposed on the institution instead of putting the future of the students at stake.

They requested that the respondent institutions be directed to register them (petitioners) as students and allow them to sit the exam.

A double bench -- Justice Abdul Sattar and Justice Shahzad Ahmad Khan -- issued notices to the UHS and its syndicate, the PMDC, the health ministry and the college. It also summoned on Sept 11 deputy attorney general and advocate general, Punjab.