2006 PLP 3257 (YLR)

The petitioner is a student of B.D.S. at de Montmorency College. He appeared in the B.D.S. Second Professional Annual and Supplementary Examination 2004 but remained unsuccessful. Thereafter he participated in the B.D.S. Annual Examination, 2005 and qualified the same. He applied to the respondent No.2 seeking permission for appearing in B.D.S. Third Professional Examination to be held in August, 2005 but his request was declined. This Court vide order dated 13-12-2005 allowed the petitioner to take part in the examination subject to the result of this petition.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner urges that the petitioner was admitted in the 2001/2002 Session. He was entitled to participate in the B.D.S. Third Professional Examination held in August, 2005 under the carryon policy. Conversely the learned counsel for the respondent-University submitted that the petitioner qualified the Second Professional Examination by appearing in Annual Examination 2005. Under the Regulations of the U.H.S. a student cannot appear in two Professional Examinations (Second Professional and Third Professional) in one calendar year. Reliance was placed on Muhammad Umar Wahid and others v. University of Health Sciences Lahore and others PLD 2006 SC 300, a Division Bench judgment dated 28-2-2006 of this Court passed on Writ Petition No.19217 of 2005 and another Division Bench judgment of this Court passed on Writ Petition No.1742 of 2006. In rebuttal the learned counsel for the petitioner urged that under the old Policy the petitioner could appear in two different exams in one calendar year and that the petitioner had completed 75 % of the lectures for Third B.D.S. Professional Examination.

3. We have gone through the relevant regulations and considered the arguments of the learned counsel for the parties. The relevant regulations reads as under: (a) Those who fail to qualify in one or more subjects may be provisionally promoted the next higher classes till the supplementary examination. (b) In case a student fails to pass in the supplementary examination his/ her provisional promotion on the next higher calls shall stand automatically cancelled and he/she shall revert to the previous class." "

2. Students who fail in a professional examination will not be promoted to the next higher class until they have passed that examination in full." The U.H.S. Regulations are in conformity with P.M.D.C. Regulations. An identical legal issue also came up for consideration before the Honourable Supreme Court in the case of Muhammad Umar Wahid and others v. University of Health Sciences Lahore and others (supra) wherein it was observed as under: "In the present case Regulation No.3 of the Statutes and Regulations of the. University of Health Sciences, Lahore, dated 14-7-2004, reproduced above, which admittedly is applicable to all the Medical Colleges falling under its authority, in unequivocal terms imposes a bar on the promotion of students to the second A year until all the subjects in the first professional Part I examination have been cleared. The said provision is not only not in conflict with the restrictions imposed by the P.M.D.C., but is a step further in achieving the objects for which the provision was incorporated, namely, to strengthen the academic competency of the students." The petitioner could not qualify the Second Professional in the Annual and Supplementary Examination held in 2004 and thus was detained. He qualified the Second Professional Examination by appearing in Annual Examination, 2005. It is not permissible to take the examination of the Third Professional in the same calendar year. The policy, if any, orally relied upon by the learned counsel for the petitioner has not been placed on the record. Since he was not promoted to Third Professional he could not attend the classes for the same.

4. In view of the above we find no substance in this petition and dismiss the same. S.M.B./A-181/L Petition dismissed.