The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday granted permission to students of the Dawood University of Engineering & Technology (DUET) to appear in the upcoming examinations as an interim measure subject to furnishing undertaking by them.
The interim order came on a petition of three engineering students against the cancellation and suspension of their admissions. The petitioners, Mohammad Uzair, Mohammad Zohaib and Mohammad Sajid, had assailed the DUET order that cancelled and suspended their admissions.
Their counsel Usman Farooq said the director of student affairs/secretary of the DUET disciplinary committee had issued the impugned notification on the recommendation of the committee’s meeting on September 17 on the grounds of alleged misconduct.
Farooq said the respondent had recommended the cancellation of admissions of two of the petitioners and the suspension of the admission of the third petitioner for six months. He said that sudden and harsh recommendations were forwarded to the syndicate while simultaneously suspending the petitioners’ admissions and banning their entry into the campus.
He also said that the impugned notifications carried an inherent contradiction as on the one hand, the disciplinary committee’s recommendations were forwarded to the syndicate as the competent authority to decide upon them, while on the other hand, the petitioners’ admissions were suspended and their entry into the university was banned with immediate effect.
He pointed out that the petitioners had been punished in advance, without final adjudication, violating the principles of natural justice and fair procedure guaranteed under the Article 10-A of the Constitution.
The counsel said that one of the petitioners was also penalised by the suspension of his admission from September 17, 2025, to March 17, 2026, and had been barred from attending classes, taking exams and even entering the university.
He said that no proper show-cause notices were ever issued to the petitioners prior to the passing of the impugned orders, while no details of the alleged misconduct, statements of witnesses, inquiry reports or any evidence was provided to them.
He said that the impugned notifications were without lawful authority because under the university Act and the regulations, the syndicate was the competent authority to impose major penalties such as cancellation of admission.
He added that the disciplinary committee could only make recommendations, so suspending admission and banning campus entry before the syndicate’s approval was ultra vires, without jurisdiction and had no legal effect.
He requested the high court to declare that the impugned notification was illegal and without lawful authority, and that the petitioners had a vested right to pursue their education, attend classes and take their mid-term exams scheduled to be held from October 20.
A counsel for the DUET said that he had no objection to the petitioners’ appearance in the upcoming examination as an interim measure subject to furnishing of an undertaking by them. A division bench of the high court headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro after the statement of the DUET’s counsel directed the university to allow the petitioners to appear in the examinations on furnishing the undertaking and adjourned the hearing till December 12.