KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday provisionally allowed a religious minority student to appear in the forthcoming placement test for MBBS admission to the Dow University of Health Sciences.

Sagar Ladhani, who completed his O and A levels, assailed the condition of studying Islamiat at O level to get an equivalence certificate from the local education board to appear in the forthcoming entrance test for MBBS admissions to medical colleges and institutions.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam put off the hearing of his petition to Nov 15 when the rights of the petitioner would be determined.

The petitioner stated that the subjects of religious studies, prescribed in the O level syllabus, were Islamic Religious Culture and Islamiat for Muslim students and Religious Studies and Bible for Christian students. However, he added, there was no subject in the O level curriculum for the students belonging to other religious minorities, including the Hindus.

He submitted that when he approached the Board of Intermediate Education to obtain an equivalence certificate of A level, he was told that it could be granted to him only if he had passed Religious Studies at O level or Ethics at the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams.

He said he was unable to apply to the DUHS for appearing in the forthcoming entrance test for MBBS admission, as the education board declined to grant him the equivalence certificate as required by the university.

The student was told by the education board that he would not be granted an equivalence certificate unless he passed the SSC examination of Ethics that was scheduled to be held in 2012.