Incorrect NEET score! HC junks plea by MBBS student seeking to continue studies

Chennai: The Madras High Court recently denied granting relief to a second-year MBBS student, who was last year relieved from the Government Thoothukudi Medical College because of his low score in NEET.

While the medico filed a plea before the Madras High Court and prayed to be allowed to continue his studies in any private college, the HC bench comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy dismissed the plea noting that there is a world of unlimited opportunities beyond medical education.

"The petitioner is not entitled for any equitable consideration as he had come up with a false case. Therefore, we do not find any equitable consideration to grant him relief," observed the HC bench.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported about this medico Manoj, who had previously alleged that his marksheet had been manipulated by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the authority in charge of conducting the NEET exam.

Previously, approaching the HC bench, the student had claimed that due to NTA's manipulation of his marksheet, he had been denied admission to medical courses. He had alleged that he had downloaded his answer sheet twice and there were disparities in the answers marked. 

The petitioner had submitted that he had got 594 marks out of 720 in the first marksheet. However, it was modified to 248 marks when he downloaded it the second time.

Also Read: Madras HC Cancels MBBS Admission of third-year student over tampering of NEET marks

While considering the matter, the HC single judge bench issued an order on January 13, 2021, allowing the petitioner candidate to get admitted in the MBBS course. However, the single-judge bench had also clarified back then that the admission of the concerned candidate was subject to the outcome of the plea.

During the hearing, NTA produced the original OMR sheet before the HC bench. Last year, referring to this, the HC bench had noted that the original mark sheet clearly established the fact that it was the only one marksheet of a single page. It contained the roll number, the questions attempted, the names of the parents of the petitioner, signatures of the petitioner and the invigilators. Referring to this, the Court opined, that none of them could be duplicated.

"These facts conclusively prove that there was only one OMR sheet. This had been produced before this Court. This shows that the petitioner had obtained 248 marks out of 720," the HC bench had noted last year.

With this observation that the NEET marks had been tampered by the candidate, the court had cancelled the MBBS admission of the student to Thoothukudi Government Medical College.

Last year, the HC bench comprising Justice C B Karthikeyan had observed, "I am afraid that the permission granted by the single judge to permit the petitioner to attend the counselling and consequent to which the petitioner had been allotted a medical seat in Tuticorin Government Medical College, will have to be interfered with and necessary orders will have to be passed terminating the continuance of study by the petitioner in the college."

As per the latest media report by the New Indian Express, the medico again approached the HC bench seeking permission to continue his studies in any private medical college. However, dismissing his plea, the bench headed by Justice Gangapurwala observed in the recent order,

"It is true and sad that the petitioner had lost two years and was undergoing the MBBS course for two years in the litigation process of two rounds. But we trust that the truth in black and white, in the form of the OMR sheet, was very much for the petitioner to see and therefore, he has to reconcile. There is a world of unlimited opportunities beyond medical admission too."

Addressing the claim of the petitioner that his score was 594 as per an image he downloaded using Google, before the results were uploaded, the bench mentioned that the image was incorrect, adds TNIE.

Also Read: NEET 2020 candidates accuse NTA of furnishing tampered OMR sheets