KARACHI, Feb 27: A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Thursday refused to allow about 90 Sindh Medical College students to appear provisionally in their fourth year and final MBBS examinations pending disposal of their writ petitions against cancellation of their admission.
The petitioners included 31 students who had earlier been granted interim permission by another division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Wahid Bux Brohi, to take the exams at their own risk and cost. They appeared in two papers but Thursday’s order by the bench, comprising Justice S. Ahmed Sarwana and M. Mujibullah Siddiqui, overrides the interim order.
Justices Sarwana and Siddiqui had on Tuesday dismissed five petitions filed by third year students, questioning the cancellation of their admission and withholding of their first professional exam result.
The bench observed that the petitions were not maintainable as they required an inquiry into disputed questions of fact which the court could not undertake in exercise of its writ jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution.
On Thursday, however, the bench decided to seek the SMC comments on the new petitions by the fourth and final year students. The comments are to be filed by March 6, when the petitions would again come up for hearing. The order was announced late in the afternoon after an extensive hearing of arguments by the two sides in the courtroom and the chamber.
The SMC and the University of Karachi had cancelled the admissions of the petitioners this year for allegedly getting admission through fraudulent means and by submitting bogus documents.
The action was taken following an inquiry instituted by the provincial governor as chancellor of the university.
Advocate Raja Qureshi, the main counsel for the petitioners, vehemently argued that the students could not be deprived of the intellectual property they had acquired after years of medical education.
He produced admit cards, enrolment certificates and fee receipts to show that the petitioners were treated as bona fide students throughout their stay at the SMC.
The bench pointed out that what the petitioners should have produced were certificates from the college authorities that they had attended 75 per cent of the lectures as required by the rules. At least in one case, it pointed out, a petitioner was employed as a lower division clerk in Islamabad all the time he was enrolled as a student of the SMC.
Advocate Qureshi submitted that an inquiry was held behind the petitioners’ back, who were neither issued show-cause notices nor heard in their defence. The inquiry could not be conducted by the governor’s inspection team as it had no locus standi.
The bench observed that the governor enjoyed ample powers in his capacity as the chancellor of the university.
Contesting the petition, Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan submitted that the petitioners could not be allowed to benefit from their wrongdoing. That would put a premium on employment of unfairmeans in education as a wrongdoer would know that ultimately he would have his way through a court order.
The petitioners had already usurped the right of more deserving candidates, who qualified for admission on merit. Relief under Article 199 was discretionary and no court would exercise its jurisdiction to extend relief to a wrongdoer.
He cited a recent Supreme Court judgment withholding relief from a Chandka Medical College student because he had not approached the court with clean hands.