Student loses medical seat as Madras HC rejects case on marks anomaly

Chennai: Denying relief to a student who got provisional admission in a government medical college after finding fault with the NEET answer sheet two years ago, Madras high court has said “there is a world of unlimited opportunities beyond medical admission too.”

First bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy made the observation while dismissing an appeal moved by KS Manoj.

Manoj appeared for NEET in 2020-21. On October 16, 2020, he downloaded the online answer sheet. As per that, he obtained 594 out of 720 marks.

However, after some time, when the authorities released the rank list, his mark was mentioned as 248 instead of 594 making him ineligible for admission to MBBS course in any government medical college.

Aggrieved, he moved the high court. Through an interim order, a single judge of the court directed the authorities to grant admission to the petitioner and ordered an inquiry into the issue.

As per the interim order, the petitioner was admitted at the Thoothukudi Medical College where he is currently pursuing second year in MBBS course.

The national testing agency approached the Supreme Court which in turn returned the issue to the single judge. Based on an inquiry, it came to light that the answer sheet produced by the agency was correct and therefore, the court relieved the petitioner from the course.

Challenging the order, the petitioner has moved the present appeal.

He submitted that he has completed two years of study in his MBBS and even if it is concluded that he has got only 248 marks, still he is eligible to pursue his MBBS in any private college.

Since there are vacancies in private institutions, he wanted the court to permit him to continue his studies in any private medical college.

Refusing any relief, the first bench of the court dismissed his appeal.