diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d1c347c00a3f1f..7732e8ec1564f7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -137,6 +137,9 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 - Fixed logger creating directory structure too early in DDP ([#6380](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/pull/6380))
 
 
+- Fixed comparing required versions ([#6434](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/pull/6434))
+
+
 ## [1.2.2] - 2021-03-02
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/pl_examples/__init__.py b/pl_examples/__init__.py
index ffd60f9ed71af4..e3c5a78124137d 100644
--- a/pl_examples/__init__.py
+++ b/pl_examples/__init__.py
@@ -15,10 +15,10 @@
 _DATASETS_PATH = os.path.join(_PACKAGE_ROOT, 'Datasets')
 
 _TORCHVISION_AVAILABLE = _module_available("torchvision")
-_TORCHVISION_MNIST_AVAILABLE = True
+_TORCHVISION_MNIST_AVAILABLE = _TORCHVISION_AVAILABLE
 _DALI_AVAILABLE = _module_available("nvidia.dali")
 
-if _TORCHVISION_AVAILABLE:
+if _TORCHVISION_MNIST_AVAILABLE:
     try:
         from torchvision.datasets.mnist import MNIST
         MNIST(_DATASETS_PATH, download=True)
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/utilities/imports.py b/pytorch_lightning/utilities/imports.py
index 41a13d6c678a0d..7bb6f51b1195ee 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/utilities/imports.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/utilities/imports.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 """General utilities"""
+import importlib
 import operator
 import platform
 import sys
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@
 from importlib.util import find_spec
 
 import torch
-from pkg_resources import DistributionNotFound, get_distribution
+from pkg_resources import DistributionNotFound
 
 
 def _module_available(module_path: str) -> bool:
@@ -42,8 +43,17 @@ def _module_available(module_path: str) -> bool:
 
 
 def _compare_version(package: str, op, version) -> bool:
+    """Compare package version with some requirements
+
+    >>> _compare_version("torch", operator.ge, "0.1")
+    True
+    """
+    if not _module_available(package):
+        return False
     try:
-        pkg_version = LooseVersion(get_distribution(package).version)
+        pkg = importlib.import_module(package)
+        assert hasattr(pkg, '__version__')
+        pkg_version = pkg.__version__
         return op(pkg_version, LooseVersion(version))
     except DistributionNotFound:
         return False