“State obliged to compensate”: Madras High Court orders Rs. 1Lac compensation to NEET candidate unable to attend counseling due to poor internet

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the Director of Medical Education and its Selection Committee to award Rs. 1 lakh compensation to a student who failed to register for the NEET counseling process due to technical glitches and poor internet connectivity in his village.

The court was hearing a petition moved by a medical aspirant who, due to poor internet connectivity, was unable to register his name for counseling of NEET counseling.

Justice GR Swaminathan observed that the state was obligated to compensate a student who was denied his entitlement due to the "digital divide," and directed the Department to ensure that the selection procedure is carried out in such a way that similar incidents do not occur in the future.

Petitioner’s case was that he scored 409 marks in the NEET Examination but was unable to register for counseling on time due to poor internet connectivity and even when the connectivity was excellent, the One Time Password (OTP) was not generated on time. 

Later, he discovered that people with as low as 108 points were also given seats under the management quota, and so, he approached the High Court.

On contrary, the Department submitted that the counseling for the academic year 2021-2022 has already concluded, and there are no vacancies.

It was further claimed that the Petitioner did not obtain the required marks to be considered for counseling.

To this, Court stated that if the petitioner's grades were lower than the cut-off, he would not have been called for counseling.

The court while agreeing to the Department’s contention that no order could be issued directing the petitioner’s admission to any medical course for the academic year 2021-22, noted that it was necessary to address the “digital divide” that had caused this situation.

Court observed that the Petitioner was qualified for admission based on his grades and that he only failed due to online glitches and added that this situation could have been avoided if the respondents had used both physical and online counseling.

Accordingly, Court directed the respondents to reconsider the mode of selection in light of the petitioner's experience so that such incidents do not occur in the future.

Court placed reliance on the Apex Court’s decision in Asha v. P.T.B.D.Sharma University of Health Sciences and Ors. (2012) and S.Krishna Sradha v. State of Andhra Pradesh and Ors. (2020) wherein the court held that wherever the court finds that the actions of the authorities were arbitrary, contrary to the judgments of the Court, and in violation of the Rules, Regulations, and Conditions of the Prospectus, causing prejudice to the rights of the students, the Court shall award compensation to such students.

Therefore the Court directed the respondents to pay a sum of Rs. 1 lakh as compensation to the petitioner, within eight weeks.

Case Title: K.Lal Bhagadhur Sashtri v. The Director of Medical Education and Anr.