In a relief to three students, who “inadvertently” stated they belonged to the general category while appearing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the Madras High Court directed the authorities to treat them as candidates of the OBC category as claimed.
“When a student commits some mistake and seeks for alteration of such a mistake at a later point of time, taking into consideration that his future will be at stake by reason of such mistake, this court, invoking the powers conferred on it under Article 226 of the Constitution, in order to do complete justice, feels that the plea of the petitioners can be entertained,” said Justice B. Rajendran.
Such a mistake committed by petitioners “should not be put against them to deny their fundamental right to get admitted into medical college based on their communal status,” he said and allowed the students’ pleas.
Three separate petitions by Vishnu Bargavi S., K. Kevin Germanus, and S. Sathesh Kumar submitted that mistakes were made while appearing for NEET exam over the category for community but were not permitted to correct them as they sought to do so at a later point of time.
After the declaration of NEET results, it was realised that they had obtained 133, 135, and 134 marks respectively — all above the required cut off of 118 for OBC candidates and hence the plea seeking to make the required change in the category.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge said: “Should this great opportunity of studying for one year in the prime time of their life be deprived because of the mistake committed by them in not filling up the application form correctly. Definitely, this Court can come to their rescue.”
The judge referred to the statement of the Central Board of School Education (CBSE) had stated that correction, if any, made with respect to the data in the application can be permitted to be corrected as a one-time measure to the student.
The judge held that the petitioners be treated as per their communal status irrespective of the mistake committed by them while filling the application forms and further issued a direction to authorities to treat the petitioners as per their communal status and to pass appropriate orders. However, he made it clear that direction need not be taken as a precedent.
The judgment was delivered just one day ahead of September 30, the last date fixed for admission into medical colleges as per the decision of the Supreme Court.
