CHAIRMAN, JOINT ADMISSION COMMITTEE, KHYBER MEDICAL COLLEGE, PESHAWAR and others vs RAZA HASSAN and others

ORDER

' MAMOON KAZI, J.---The petitioners have called into question the judgment of the Peshawar High Court dated 16-7-1998, accepting the writ petition filed by respondent Raza Hassan and ordering the petitioners to Admit the said respondent in the first year of M.B.,B.S. During the Session 1997-98 in Khyber Medical College, Peshawar.

2. The said respondent had applied for admission to one of the medical colleges in the Province of N.-W.F.P. On self-finance basis. After name of the respondent had appeared in the list of successful candidates, the admission policy was altered by the petitioners in view of the instructions received in this regard from the Health Department vide their letter, dated 29-11-1997. In the ' category in which the respondent had applied for admission, twelve seats were allotted to the doctors' children resulting in drastic curtailment of seats for the other. Candidates. Thereafter, the respondent, failing to elicit a satisfactory response from the petitioners, filed a writ petition before the High Court.

3. The petition filed by the respondent was allowed by the High Court as it was held that the respondent had acquired a vested right. Directions were consequently issued to the petitioners, as pointed out earlier.

4. The judgment of the High Court has been assailed on the plea that, final selection of the candidates had yet to be made, therefore, before any decisive step had been taken, the petitioners had a right to alter the admission policy. Consequently, the findings of the High Court that the said respondent had acquired a vested right to the admission were completely unwarranted by law, Learned counsel for the respondent, on the other hand, has fully supported the order passed by the High Court.

5. Although we are fully conscious that universities in Pakistan enjoy complete freedom to take decisions in their own matters and interference by the Courts in such matters would be the least desirable except for exceptional circumstances. But in the present case, it would not be out of place to observe that for this litigation the petitioners have only themselves to blame. Even if the petitioners have power to amend or alter any rule embodied in the prospectus, such action appears to be completely ill-advised after the process of admissions had already commenced.

6. The respondent is already attending M.B.,B.S. Classes in Khyber Medical College, Peshawar in pursuance of the impugned judgment. When this petition was filed, it was placed for Chamber's Orders before a learned Judge of this Court on 3-9-1998, but, the petitioners' request for suspension of the operation of the judgment of the High Court was declined and the said respondent was allowed to avail the benefit of the impugned judgment until final decision of this case.

7. Therefore, even if the petitioners ultimately succeed in this case, by such time considerable time would elapse, keeping in view the backlog of cases pending in this Court. Under the circumstances would it be appropriate to deprive a student of his career in medicine when he would already have reached the fag-end thereof. We are, therefore, not inclined to interfere with the judgment of the High Court in any case.

8. In the result, the petition is dismissed and leave is refused.

' C.M.A. No,115-P of 1998 seeking action for contempt of Court against the Principal, Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, is dismissed as the same is not pressed by the learned counsel for the respondents.