Materia Medica Malaysiana

UM fails to have suit thrown out

Universiti Malaya (UM) has failed to strike out a suit filed against it by 30 doctors who claimed they were denied the right to practise medicine in the country.
High Court deputy registrar M. Edwin Paramjothy dismissed the university’s application in his chambers with costs.
Two other universities – Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia – as well as the Malaysian Medical Council and the Health Minister – had also applied to strike out the suit. Their applications have yet to be heard.
Filed last September, the group of doctors who graduated more than 10 years ago from non-accredited universities in India, Indonesia, Syria and Pakistan, sought a declaration that they have the right to be allowed to practise as doctors in accordance with Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.
They also sought an order that the decision to fail them in their final examinations by UM and the two other universities was unfair and discriminating.
In their statement of claim, the doctors said that their medical degrees were legal and recognised by the World Health Organisation and also by the countries where their degrees were issued.
The doctors, aged 30 to 42, are claiming damages, costs and other relief.
Apart from that, they alleged that the failure to recognise their degrees was because the defendants did not evaluate the facilities and curriculum available at the universities they (the doctors) had graduated from.
It was not because these universities were below the required standard, they claimed.
UM had applied to strike out the suit on the grounds that the plaintiffs do not have locus standi to act against it.
The university claimed the court was not the proper forum to determine the merits of the plaintiffs, adding that the declaration sought was misconceived in law, frivolous and vexatious and was also an abuse of power.
The university said the plaintiffs' application ought to have been commenced by way of a judicial review.