NEET PG: Candidates cannot change categories after results declaration- HC junks doctor's plea
Karnataka High Court
Bangalore: Denying relief to a doctor, the Karnataka High Court dismissed her plea seeking a direction to the authorities to allow her to change her category from General to OBC after the declaration of the results of the NEET PG 2025 examination.
Dismissing the plea, a division bench of Justices D K Singh and Venkatesh Naik observed, "...once, a candidate has filled up his/her form for NEET-UG/PG belonging to a particular category and if he/she fails to correct the application form during the period provided for correction by the National Testing Agency, a candidate, after declaration of the result would not be entitled to change his/her category...We, therefore, find no substance in this writ petition. Accordingly, the writ petition is hereby dismissed, however without costs."
While applying for the NEET PG 2025 exam, the petitioner had filled up the application form as a General Merit candidate, and consequently, the result of the examination was declared on 19.08.2025. After the results were declared, the petitioner sought to change her category from General to OBC and approached the High Court, filing the plea on 08.09.2025.
The counsel for the petitioner relied on the judgments passed by the coordinate bench in the case of Dr. Lakshmi P.Gowda vs. National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences, dated 10.08.2023 and Bhanusri.S vs. The State of Karnataka, Department of Education, dated 11.07.2024.
On the other hand, the respondents including NBEMS, Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), Karnataka Higher Education Department argued that the petitioner had a window to correct her application form if she was of the opinion that she belonged to the OBC category, as the bulletin of information itself provided on 09.03.2025 to 11.03.2025 as the date during which a candidate could have corrected the application if some mistake was committed while filling up the form.
They contended that the petitioner did not choose to correct her category and participated in the examination as a general merit category candidate, and then she wanted to change her category after being unsuccessful. Such a course is not open otherwise; it would upset the entire result of the NEET-PG 2025 examination.
The authorities relied on a Madras High Court judgment, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court in the case of Minor S. Jeyathinathan vs. The National Testing Agency and Others.
After considering the judgments cited by the petitioner, the HC bench noted, "In the case of Dr. Lakshmi P. Gowda, this Court has specifically held that the judgment shall not be treated as precedent in future and in the case of Bhanusri S. (supra), this Court has held that permitting the petitioner in that case to her correct category in the application as Other Backward Classes category would neither prejudice other students nor entitle the petitioner to reap the benefit. In that case, the application was made for corrections before the result was announced. Here, the petitioner has come before this Court after the result of NEET-PG 2025 was announced. Therefore, both the cases relied on by the learned counsel for the petitioner are distinguishable on the facts of the present case."
Accordingly, the Court denied granting relief to the petitioner and dismissed her plea.
To view the order, click on the link below:
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/karnataka-hc-category-change-303923.pdf
