Supreme Court issues notice on impersonation in NEET PG Counselling

New Delhi: While considering a case of impersonation in NEET-PG counselling, where a candidate took admission in the name and place of the petitioner student, the Supreme Court issued notice on Friday.

It was alleged in the petition that someone else took admission in Karnataka in the name of the petitioner student, who hailed originally from Rajasthan. The impersonator allegedly blocked the seat by paying an amount of Rs 11 lakhs.

Apart from issuing notice, the top court bench comprising of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant also granted liberty to serve the standing counsel for the State of Karnataka, where the incident of impersonation took place. The bench also directed the Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati for assisting the court regarding the issue.

"We'll issue notice. Liberty to serve the Standing Counsel to the State of Karnataka. Ms Bhati, please assist the court," the bench noted.

The petitioner doctor in the present case, who studied in Maharashtra, had taken part in the Round 1 and 2 of the AIQ counselling and consequently was allotted a seat in M.D Psychiatry in Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha. However, she did not join the seat and exited the same with forfeiture. Following this, she took part in the State Counselling in Maharashtra in the State Quota seats and secured a seat for M.D. Chest and T.B. from Indira Gandhi Government Medical College, Nagpur.

At this point, the petitioner did not join the State seat as well and had challenged the April 16, 2022 notice issued by Maharashtra Government, by which she had been debarred from participating in the fresh mop up round.

In her petitioner, she had referred to the Supreme Court order dated March 31, 2022, students who had joined in round 2 of the State quota or round 2 of the AIQ shall not be eligible for participating in the mop-up round for the All India Quota. She claimed that as per the order, she was eligible for participating in the fresh mop up round as she did not join an seat in round 2 of AIQ or the State Quota seat.

"Thus, the Petitioner is eligible to participate for fresh AIQ Mop-Up and in the most arbitrary, mechanical and illegal manner blocked by impugned notice dated 16.04.2022. This despite the fact that the Respondent No.2 in its notice dated 26.03.2022 clearly showed status of the Petitioner as Non Joined/canceled candidate. That this is in gross violation of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution and hence the Petitioner is constrained to knock the doors of this Hon'ble Court," the doctor had stated in her petition.

Meanwhile, the matter of alleged impersonation took place and the counsel for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde submitted before the top court bench that someone else had taken admission in the place of the petitioner doctor in the State of Karnataka.