MDCAT mandatory for admissions in medical colleges: SC

• Supreme Court maintains Lahore High Court's order on MDCAT.
• Pvt colleges cannot circumvent MDCAT as it is mandatory, SC says.
• LHC and IHC had rejected the student's plea against MDCAT.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday maintained the Lahore High Court (LHC) order and declared the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) mandatory for admissions to medical colleges.

A three-member SC bench, comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, and Justice Munib Akhtar, had reserved the judgment on September 27.

The applicants had sought permission to file the instant petition against the LHC's decision, saying that Lahore's top court had followed the ruling of the Islamabad High Court.

The five-page judgment authored by Justice Shah stated that the admission to medical or dental programmes conducted by the public colleges should be regulated as per the policy of the provincial governments strictly on merit.

The judge said that admission to a private college should be in accordance with the criteria and requirements stipulated by the private college at least one year in advance of admissions.

The SC, however, ruled that under the regulations, students applying for any medical or dental college were required to take MDCAT and the same applied to private medical colleges.

The court ruled that private colleges were not allowed to circumvent MDCAT with their home-developed tests as MDCAT is a legal requirement under the Pakistan Medical Commission Act, 2020.

The court also quoted from the act: "Any student seeking admission in any medical or dental college shall mandatorily be required to have passed the MDCAT examination held by PMC."

It is pertinent to mention here that the LHC and IHC had rejected the student's plea against MDCAT.