The High Court of Delhi has allowed the petition filed for rectification of wrongful allotment of seats in NEET PG 2020-21.
A single-judge Bench of Justice Jayant Nath has directed that the petitioner be allotted the available seat for MD General Medicine at Rohtak Medical College in the interest of justice.
The petition was filed in the Delhi High Court by Advocate Naushad Ahmed Khan for petitioner Duddugunta Vishnu Priya seeking direction to the respondents to rectify wrongly allotted MD Microbiology seat in University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, instead of MD General Medicine.
The petitioner also prayed for a direction to allot seat in any opted college in course MD General Medicine, in the leftover seats in second counselling or anywhere else in any Government college.
The petitioner candidate secured rank 553 in All India Quota in NEET PG 2020-21, and in the first round of counselling, was allotted provisional allotment for All India Quota in general category with Grant Medical College, Mumbai the course being MD General Medicine. Following the process of the counselling that allows a candidate to opt for a better college in the second round, the petitioner applied for the upgradation of her seat in the second round of counselling and opted for 8 institutions for a common department, namely, MD General Medicine. However, when she received a provisional allotment letter in round-II she was shocked to know that she had been allotted University College of Medical Sciences with the MD Microbiology course in the general category for All India Quota Seats instead of MD General Medicine.
Learned Counsel Mr Khan for the petitioner submitted that she has never opted for MD Microbiology in round –I or in round- II and there seems to be an inadvertent mistake or technical glitch. It appears that on account of some default or technical glitch, at serial No.3 in second round, the choice of the petitioner was wrongly noted as University College of Medical Sciences course MD Microbiology. It is the case of the petitioner that in this particular course of MD Microbiology the next rank allotted is the rank of 18829 in contrast to the rank of the petitioner, which is 553, he said.
Mr Khan stresses that given the merit of the petitioner in the said exam, namely, rank 553, she would be eligible in the normal course to admission in the said college i.e. University College of Medical Sciences in MD General Medicine. Learned counsel has also drawn attention to the communications dated 15.06.2020 and 17.06.2020 where the petitioner has protested to the respondent, the court noted in its order.
Mr Khan for the petitioner has relied upon the judgments of a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in the case of Sashi Saraswat v. The State of Maharashtra & Anr., W.P. ST. N.19728/2018, decided on 18.07.2020 and Uttam Kumar Lenka v. Directorate General of Health Services & Anr., W.P.(C) 3746/2012, a judgment of a Co-ordinate Bench of this court to plead that in similar circumstances the petitioners in those matters were granted relief and were not deprived of their choices on account of inadvertent or bonafide error, the Court added.
The Court noted that the petitioner should not be made to suffer on account of a bonafide human error or error in the computer, especially so when no prejudice is caused to any other candidates in the sense that the petitioner is getting what she is entitled to as per her rank in the examination. She has been offered a seat strictly as per her rank.
The Court observed that a seat has been retained by the respondent on account of the interim order of this court course in MD General Medicine at Rohtak Medical College, the petitioner is entitled to this seat as per her rank of the merit list.
Therefore, the Court has ordered the seat the available seat for MD General Medicine at Rohtak Medical College to be granted to the petitioner in interest of justice.
Read the Order Here;
Order-dated-03.07.2020-Duddugunta-India Legal Bureau