SAT-II category students: medical colleges directed to entertain admission forms provisionally

The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed medical colleges to entertain admission forms of students of SAT-II category provisionally as per the criteria laid down in 2013 regulations of the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC). The court adjourned to November 16 the proceedings in some identical petitions of students challenging retrospective enforcement of admissions' regulation introduced by the council in 2016.
The petitioner students of SAT-II category said they were not required to participate in medical and dental colleges admission test (MDCAT) for the admission under the previous regulations of 2013. They said the PMDC without properly notifying enforced its new 2016 regulations which changed the eligibility criteria for students of SAT-II category and made the MDCAT mandatory for them.
The petitioner contended that they made their preparation following the 2013 regulations and chose the path of SAT-II to enter the medical profession. However, they said, the PMDC implemented its new regulations retrospectively instead of prospectively from academic sessions of 2020-21 protecting and exhausting all the ongoing sessions. Lawyers of the petitioners argued that law had been settled on the point that executive's actions could not have retrospective effects, taking away vested rights of citizens.
They said the drastic changes introduced in the impugned regulations regarding the eligibility criteria for SAT-II students caused extreme frustration as well as it discouraged a large number of aspiring candidates. The counsel asked the court to set aside the 2016 regulations of the PMDC for being unconstitutional and unwarranted.