PESHAWAR – A fourth-year MBBS student, Hoor Dawar, has moved the Peshawar High Court against Regulation 5 of the Khyber Medical University (KMU) Examination Regulations, 2017, which prohibits promotion to the next class in case of failure in even a single subject.The petitioner contends that the provision is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and detrimental to students’ academic progress.
The writ petition was filed by Advocate Nouman Muhib Kakakhel on behalf of the petitioner.
According to the counsel, the petitioner has successfully cleared all subjects of her Fourth Professional MBBS except one.However, under the impugned regulation, she is being compelled to wait for an entire academic year before she can be promoted, thereby causing her significant academic and emotional distress.
The counsel further argued that the regulation was amended in 2023, but the amendment cannot be applied retrospectively to the petitioner, as she was admitted in 2020 prior to the introduction of the new rule.Therefore, the counsel submitted, the provision is ultra vires to the Constitution and the principal legislation governing medical education.
Highlighting the discriminatory nature of the regulation, the petitioner’s counsel pointed out that in most other degree programmes, provisional promotions are permitted, allowing students to appear for the failed subject’s examination alongside their next class.In contrast, MBBS students are denied this flexibility, which, he argued, is both unreasonable and unjust.
The counsel maintained that while the regulation permits multiple attempts to clear a failed subject, it unjustly prohibits provisional promotion following the 2023 amendment.He asserted that this violates the “doctrine of proportionality,” as it imposes a disproportionately harsh penalty for a situation that could be easily remedied.
He prayed that the court strike down the amendment for being unconstitutional, illegal, discriminatory, arbitrary, and unreasonable.He further requested that the petitioner and other students in similar circumstances be granted provisional promotion to the next professional class without the loss of an academic year.
