New Delhi: In a decisive ruling, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court has nullified an interim order dated July 14, 2022, issued by the High Court of Calcutta. The High Court’s order had allowed medical students to partake in counseling sessions scheduled for August 2022, pertaining to admissions to the MBBS program at West Bengal University of Health Sciences. Notably, this permission was granted on the basis of the NEET 2019 results.
The Bench, composed of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, revoked the contested order on two primary grounds. Firstly, the Court held that employing the 2019 NEET results as a criterion for counseling in 2022, for admission to MBBS courses, was untenable. Additionally, the Court opined that an interim order should not have been used to grant such a directive.
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Background Details
This case centered around three petitioners who had appeared for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) (UG)-2019. These petitioners held rankings of 314773, 325058, and 664781, with percentiles of 77.5, 76.9, and 52.68, respectively. All three applicants had submitted applications for EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) eligibility certificates in the prescribed format on July 22, 2019.
Before a Single-Judge Bench of the High Court, it was argued that when these three petitioners, based in Jalpaiguri, approached the relevant authorities to participate in the Round 2 Counseling of the selection process at West Bengal University of Health Sciences, they were informed that they did not qualify due to the absence of EWS certificates. The EWS certificates were ultimately received by the petitioners on August 8, 2019, by which time Round 2 counseling had already concluded.
The High Court, in response, expressed its disappointment since the petitioners had achieved high scores in the examination and secured good rankings in an All India Examination, with corresponding rankings for the State of West Bengal. Given the exceptional circumstances of this case, the Court deemed it appropriate to instruct the Registrar-in-charge of West Bengal University of Health Sciences to permit the petitioners to participate in the MOP UP counseling for the WB UG MBBS State Quota Seats 2019, based on the EWS Certificates issued to them by the concerned authorities on August 8, 2019. Dissatisfied with this decision, the University’s Registrar-in-charge appealed against the order before a Two-Judge Bench of the High Court.
During the appeal hearing, the High Court took note of the petitioners’ argument that candidates with lower rankings had been granted admission. Consequently, the Court stated: “This Court is, therefore, prima facie of the view that the petitioner should be allowed, at the very least, to participate in the counseling session for the admission process scheduled to commence in August 2022 for the MBBS course at West Bengal University of Health Sciences.”
Status Quo of the Writ Petition
It is noteworthy that, in order to resolve this ongoing legal dispute, the Supreme Court found it necessary to close the chapter on the Single Judge’s issuance of directives in 2019, which the Division Bench had stayed, ultimately leading to the contested order in 2022. Therefore, the Court upheld the appeal filed by the Registrar-in-Charge and dismissed the writ petition.
