LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday ordered the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to ensure that all the medical colleges charged tuition fee and other charges as were publicly declared at the time of admission for the session starting in 2022 and thereafter.

Justice Shahid Jamil Khan observed that there was a mushroom growth of private medical and dental colleges owned by the entrepreneurs from the private sector, therefore, many issues relating to accreditation, maintaining of standards arose and were addressed by the courts.

He regretted that the education in the field of medicine became an industry catering to students who could afford the expense.

He said since the non-affording students were being deprived of education on merit, therefore, the government, through legislation, and the courts, through decisions, endeavored to protect their rights.

Asks PMDC to ensure implementation of 2022 arrangement

Justice Khan made these observations in a judgment passed on the petitions challenging unexpected increase in tuition fee by some medical colleges during the ongoing study programmes.

Initially, Judicial Activism Panel (JAP), a non-profit organisation, had filed a petition but some students later joined the proceedings by filing civil miscellaneous applications.

The lawyers for the colleges opposed the maintainability of the petitions saying a writ cannot be issued against a private college.

However, the judge observed that the objection of maintainability was misconceived because the PMDC and University of Health Sciences (UHS) were made respondents in the petitions and under statutory obligation to regulate, in particular to enforce the statutory commands.

The judge noted that the government’s decision or policy of prohibiting the enhancement in tuition fee and other charges were protected.

He said the prohibition against the enhancement in the fee or charges, now being part of the PMDC Act 2022, under section 20(7) cannot even be undone through regulations.

Justice Khan set aside the challans of enhanced tuition fee for being unlawful and ordered the PMDC to ensure the medical and dental colleges charged fee as publicly announced at the time of the admission.

The judge directed the federal law officer to submit a compliance report with the deputy registrar (judicial) of the high court within 45 days.

Justice Khan observed that the language barrier in a way restricts “access to information” guaranteed under Article 19A of the Constitution.

Therefore, the judge directed the LHC registrar to get the judgment translated in Urdu, by the relevant technical personnel, and publish the same for the consumption of the common citizens.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2023