AIIMS docked for red-carding MBBS aspirant

HC fines ₹50,000; candidate was not allowed inside exam hall as his Aadhaar card could not be scanned

The Delhi High Court has imposed a cost of ₹50,000 on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for denying an MBBS aspirant permission to write the entrance exam after his Aadhaar Card could not be scanned.

A Vacation Bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh said the amount will be paid to Abhimanyu Bishnoi, a student from Bidar district in Karnataka, for “harassment and frustration” caused to him. To avoid a repeat of similar incident in future, the court directed AIIMS to chart out a set of guidelines, which will be part of the brochure, to deal with the manner in which examination centres respond to various situations such as identification documents, medical conditions, discrepancies in admit cards, and discrepancies in question papers and manner of marking answers.

Constitute team

The court also said the Controller of Examinations of AIIMS should in future ensure that an immediate response team is constituted to deal with issues raised on the day of the examination.

It, however, declined Abhimanyu’s plea to conduct the entrance examination afresh for all candidates.

“In order to undo the injustice caused to the petitioner [Abhimanyu], it would be unfair to impose the burden of another examination on those candidates who have already given the examination,” the judge said, adding that conducting of fresh examination was completely impractical and not feasible.

Abhimanyu had on May 26 reached the examination centre, where he produced his original Aadhaar card for verification.

However, the official who was verifying the documents of students at the examination centre entrance, was unable to scan the QR (quick response) code of the Aadhaar card on his mobile phone.

Other identity cards produced by other candidates at the centre were only physically verified.

Abhimanyu was refused entry to the examination centre and thus, could not give the examination. He later decided to move the High Court.

The Unique Identification Authority of India told the court that production of Aadhaar identification was not compulsory in this case. It also submitted that the QR code of Abhimanyu’s Aadhaar card was scannable, which established that it was genuine.