Medical colleges told temporarily accept SAT-II students admission forms

Lahore: On Thursday, a Lahore High Court division bench ordered the medical colleges to provisionally accept admission forms of students in SAT-II category according to the criteria laid down in 2013 regulations of the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC).

Large number of aspirants moved intra-court appeals challenging reviewing enforcement of admissions’ regulation introduced by the PMDC earlier in 2016.

The requesters fall in SAT-II category of aspirants who said they were not required to sit the medical and dental colleges admission test (MDCAT) for the admission under the regulations of 2013.

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They said that Pakistan Medical and Dental Council without correctly notifying applied its new 2016 regulations, which changed the eligibility criteria for the students of SAT-II category and made the MDCAT compulsory for them.

The requester stated that they made their academic preparation following the policies of 2013 and selects the path of SAT-II to enter the medical field. Though, they added that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council implemented its new regulations retrospectively rather than prospectively that will be for academic sessions 2020-2021.

The requester’s counsels argued that the law had been settled on the point that the actions of executive could not have retrospective effects, taking away devolved rights of individuals.

They said the far-reaching changes introduced in the challenged regulations about the eligibility criteria for SAT-II category caused much frustration among the aspirants and discouraged a large number of aspiring aspirants from taking the admissions in the course.

The advocates asked the court to reserve the 2016 PMDC regulations for being illegal as well as unjustified.

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Moreover, they sought instructions for the defendants to protect future as well as vested fundamental rights of the petitioners and also other aspirants looking for the admissions admission in MBBS.

They also wanted the division bench to bring down a decision by the single bench that dismissed their summons petitions.

Advocates Abid Saqi, Khalid Ishaq and Pervez Inayat Malik represented the aspirants.

The two-judge bench consisting of Justice Ayesha A Malik and Justice Jawad Hassan ordered the medical colleges to accept the admission forms of the SAT-II category aspirants according to the old criteria subject to final decision of the case.

The bench will resume its hearing on November 15^th, 2017.