GHULAM SAFDAR SHAH, J.--This petition under Article 98 of the Constitution questions the admission of respondents 3 and 4 to the Dow Medical College against the seats reserved for the rural area of the District of Karachi.
2. Shortly stated the facts of this case are that the petitioner and respondents 3 and 4 applied for admission to the Dow Medical College against the two seats reserved for the tagged rural area of Karachi. Respondents 3 and 4 having secured better marks in the F. Sc. Examination (Medical Group) were admitted to the College as against the petitioner who had secured lesser marks. The only grievance of the petitioner is that respondents 3 and 4 do not belong to the rural area and therefore their admission was improper.
3. It is an admitted position that the College Authorities had taken the impugned decision under para. 6(A) of the Instructions for Admission to First Year M.B.,B.S. Classes. This para. reads: "A place where the population is less than 25 thousands (according to 1961-Census) shall be considered a rural area for the purpose of admission against rural seats."
The grievance of the petitioner is that respondents 3 and 4 belong to Model Colony which was integrated in the area of Malir Cantonment on 17-1-1969 by the Central Government exercising power under section 4 of the Cantonment Act, 1924 and consequently it was no more rural area so as to entitle the respondents to admission against the seats reserved for that area. In support of this Contention the learned counsel relied upon the definition or rural and urban area given in Article 3 (41) and (55) of the Basic Democracies Order, 1959 (hereinafter called the order.) The definition of "rural area" given in this order is "any area which as not an urban area". This does not solve the difficulty. "Urban area" has been defined to mean "an area within the jurisdiction of a municipal body or a Cantonment Board, and includes any other area which the Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be an urban area for the purposes of this order",
4. It would be noted that the contention of the learned counsel proceeds on the assumption that Model Colony is now a part of the Malir Cantonment Area, by virtue of the Central Government's Notification dated 17-1-1969, but that is not an admitted position. In this respect reliance is placed on the Gazette Notification dated 17-1-1969, a letter of the Assistant Director, Basic Democracies, Karachi dated 11-2-1970 and a photostat copy of a circular letter of the Executive Officer, Malir Cantonment dated 15-3-1969, but they do not conclusively prove that Model Colony is now a part of Malir Cantonment. It is true that by the Gazette Notification certain areas have been included in the Malir Cantonment but it nowhere mentions the inclusion of Model Colony. The letter of the Assistant Director, Basic Democracies, Karachi is of no help to the petitioner for two reasons; firstly because the views expressed therein relate to the altered position of Model Colony vis-a-vis the provisions of the order and secondly because those views, so far as Malir Cantonment is concerned, would be irrelevant. The only authority who could speak on the subject would be the Malir Cantonment and their letter, which is on record, does not -conclusively prove the contention of the petitioner. In this view the question is disputed whether Model Colony continues to be rural area or is a part of Malir Cantonment and consequently the very contention of the learned counsel appears to be misconceived.
5. Assuming however that Model Colony is now a part of the Malir Cantonment even then the petitioner would have no case for a number of reasons. In the first place the learned, counsel for the petitioner admitted that the instructions for admission to medical colleges are not framed under any statute nor is there any legal warrant to refer to the definition of rural and urban area given in the order. And in the second place the definition of these terms in the order is limited to the purposes for which the order was promulgated as is manifested by the clear language of the defining clause. Similarly the learned counsel admitted that the instructions for admission to medical colleges were in force long before the enactment of the order and that seats have always been reserved for candidates from rural area. If this be so then it cannot be disputed that the instructions for admission alone would be the guidelines for the college authorities to decide the inter se claim of candidates from the tagged area for admission to the reserved seats. This is exactly what the authorities have done and in our view quite rightly as admittedly respondents 3 and 4 had secured higher marks in the F.Sc. Examination than the petitioner.
6. The other reason for which the contention of the petitioner cannot be accepted is that it would lead to obvious injustice. The spirit of the instructions, for admission to medical colleges, appears to be to safeguard the interest of candidates from rural area as against the candidates from urban area for obvious reasons. After all it cannot be disputed that a candidate from rural area is likely to be somewhat handicapped in certain respects as against a candidate from urban area and it was for this reason that the framers of the instructions reserved certain seats for rural candidates because they could not be expected to compete with candidates from urban area. The fact that this was the intention of the framers of the instructions is revealed by the language of instruction 6(A) by which every area, the population of which is less than 25 thousands according to 1961- Census, is deemed to be rural area for the purpose of admission to medical colleges.
We are further of the view that if the contention of the petitioner is accepted it would lead to an absurd situation. For example if an area has all along been a rural area but is integrated into a municipality or a Cantonment Board could it be argued that in the process the population of that area would be relieved of its handicaps as against the people from urban area over night? The answer must be in the negative. It is an admitted position that Model Colony was rural area until 16.1-1969 and just because it was integrated in the Malir Cantonment (which is a disputed question) on the following day, by virtue of the Central Government's Notification, the candidates from that area would not lose the right to compete against the reserved seats for admission to medical colleges on the assumption that they are no more subject to the erstwhile handicaps.
7. In view of this discussion we are clear in our mind that this petition has no force which is dismissed but under the circumstances there would be no order as to costs.