Madras High Court
Srijan Shankar vs National Testing Agency on 7 June, 2023
W.P.No.16753 of 2023
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED : 07.06.2023
CORAM
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE M.DHANDAPANI
W.P.No.16753 of 2023
Srijan Shankar ... Petitioner
Vs.
1.National Testing Agency
An Autonomous Organization under
the Department of Higher Education,
Ministry of Education, Government of India
C-20 1A/8, Sector 62
IITK Outreach Centre,
NOIDA-201309
2. The Director General of Health Services,
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,
Nirman Bhavan,
New Delhi - 110 007.
(R2 suo-moto impleaded vide order
dated 07.06.2023 made in W.P.No.16753 of 2023)
... Respondents
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W.P.No.16753 of 2023
PRAYER : Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India
praying to issue a Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate Writ, order or
direction in the nature of a Writ directing the Respondent to consider the
representation of the petitioner vide email dated 13.05.2023 and letter dated
23.05.2023 sent via registered post for change of Petitioner's candidature for
NEET Examination 2023 from General category to OBC category for
Application No.230410653311 and admit card bearing Roll
No.4104010193.
For Petitioner : Mr.Mohammed Fayaz Ali
For Respondents : Mrs.Sunita Kumari,
Standing Counsel
for National Testing Agency-R1
ORDER
The prayer sought for herein is for a Writ of Mandamus directing
the first respondent to consider the petitioner's representation dated
13.05.2023 made for change of Petitioner's candidature for NEET
Examination 2023 from general category to OBC category in his application
and the admit card and also the letter dated 23.05.2023.
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W.P.No.16753 of 2023
2. The petitioner has written the NEET (U.G.) - 2023 examination
conducted by the first respondent.
3. However, at the time of making the application through online
instead of entering the community of the petitioner as OBC, it was wrongly
entered as General Category. The petitioner has wrongly entered the
category, which has been subsequently noticed i.e., after the declaration of
the examination results because of which, the petitioner would stand
affected, as he has to be treated as a candidate under OBC category, as
otherwise he may not get the chance of getting admission in the Medicine
course for the academic year 2023-2024. Therefore, in order to change the
community from General Category to OBC, the petitioner has moved the
present Writ Petition.
4. The issue raised in this Writ Petition is no longer res integra as
in number of cases, these kind of change of community has been entertained
and orders were passed by this Court. Attention of this Court was drawn to
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W.P.No.16753 of 2023
the decision of this Court in W.P.No.11754 of 2023 vide order dated
19.04.2023, this Court had passed the following order:-
''6. In this context, the learned counsel for the
petitioner has relied upon the following judgments.
6.1. In W.P.No.6078 of 2022 dated 16.03.2022
(K.Sanjeev Ganesh -vs- The Government of India and
others), this Court has given the following directions.
6. There is thus a direction to R3, represented by
Mr.Subbu Ranga Bharthi, learned Standing Counsel to
consider the request of the petitioner, made on
14.03.2022 via e-mail, verify the community certificate
that is stated to be enclosed with the aforesaid
representation and if the same is in order, carry out the
change in category of the petitioner from UR to OBC,
within a period of one week from today.
7. This writ petition is disposed in the above
terms. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petition is
closed. No costs.
6.2. In W.P.No.7108 of 2022 dated 24.03.2022
(D.Deepika Shree ~vs~ The Government of India and
Others), a learned Judge of this Court has given the following
directions.
6.Hence, there is a direction to R2 to permit the
petitioner to participate in the mop~up and stray vacancy
rounds for Counselling for MBBS/BDS and Nursing for
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W.P.No.16753 of 2023
2021 as and when they take place and consider her
candidature in the category of OBC.
7.This writ petition is disposed, as above. No
costs. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petition is
closed.
6.3. Likewise, in another case in W.P.No.19405 of 2022
dated 27.07.2022 (L.Anjana ~Vs~ The Government of India
and others), this Court has passed the following orders.
5. The petitioner claims that by inadvertence, in
her on~line application, she has mentioned her
Community as General (UR) instead of Other Backward
classes (OBC). She has written the NEET examination for
the Post Graduate Medical courses. The counselling is
scheduled to take place on 01.08.2022. According to the
petitioner, due to the inadvertent mistake committed by
her, in her on~line application, she is now considered
under the General (UR) category instead of Other
Backward Classes(OBC). In such circumstances, she has
given a representation to the respondents on 05.06.2022
requesting the 3rd respondent to consider her application
under the OBC category.
6. The learned counsel for the petitioner also drew
the attention of this Court that in similar matters, a
direction had been issued by this Court to the 3rd
respondent to consider the request of the applicants after
verification of the Community Certificates enclosed by
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W.P.No.16753 of 2023
them along with the representations.
7. The petitioner has also enclosed her Community
Certificate dated 24.11.2019 along with his writ petition,
which discloses that she belongs to Other Backward
Classes (OBC) category. A copy of the on~line
application has also been filed along with this writ
petition, wherein, she has mentioned inadvertently the
category as General, instead of Other Backward Classes.
8. No prejudice would be caused to the
respondents, if the petitioner~s representation referred to
supra is considered on merits and in accordance with law
by the respondents, within a time frame to be fixed by this
Court.
9. For the foregoing reasons, this Court directs the
3rd respondent to consider the request of the petitioner~s
representation dated 05.06.2022 after verifying the
Community Certificate that is stated to be enclosed with
the aforesaid representation and if the same is in order,
carry out the change in category of the petitioner from
UR to OBC, within a period of one week from the date of
receipt of a copy of this order.
7. I have considered the submissions made by the
learned counsel for both sides and have perused the materials
placed on record.
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W.P.No.16753 of 2023
8. It is a fact that the petitioner belongs to OBC
community and the competent authority viz., the Revenue
Department has issued the community certificate. At the time
of making the on~line application for NEET UG~2022
examination, this mistake has occurred and only recently this
has been realized after the results were published by verifying
the ranking given to the petitioner. This kind of mistakes are
being committed by the petitioner and other such students and
number of such students have already approached this Court
and a series of orders have been passed as stated supra, where
directions were given to the Directorate General of Health
Services to make rectification and accordingly communicate
the same to the respective students. These orders having been
accepted by the DGHS, were complied also.
9. Therefore, this Court feels that, in this context since
earlier orders have been passed by this Court in number of
cases, where directions were issued only to the Directorate
General of Health Services to act upon, this Court has no
hesitation to hold that in this case also a direction can be given
to the DGHS / respondents 2 and 3 to act upon and thereafter
communicate to the petitioner the change in community at the
earliest.''
5. Since the present issue stands on similar footing, following the
said order, the following order is passed:
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W.P.No.16753 of 2023
(i) That there shall be a direction to the
respondents, especially the 2nd respondent to consider the
representation submitted by the petitioner dated 23.05.2023
in the light of the discussion herein above made and
accordingly after changing the community of the petitioner
from ''General'' to ''OBC'', communicate the same to the
petitioner.
(ii) The needful as indicated above shall be
undertaken by said respondents within a period of two
weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
(iii) It is made clear that, in this regard if any
internal verification or communication has to be obtained or
verified by the 2nd respondent with any other agency like
NTA that also can be undertaken by them and needful shall
be complied with and communicated within the period
indicated as above.
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W.P.No.16753 of 2023
6. Accordingly, this Writ Petition is disposed of. There shall be no
order as to costs.
07.06.2023
NCC: Yes / No
Index : Yes / No
Speaking Order : Yes / No
NHS
To
1.National Testing Agency
An Autonomous Organization under
the Department of Higher Education,
Ministry of Education, Government of India
C-20 1A/8, Sector 62
IITK Outreach Centre,
NOIDA-201309
2. The Director General of Health Services,
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,
Nirman Bhavan,
New Delhi - 110 007.
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W.P.No.16753 of 2023
M.DHANDAPANI,J.
NHS
W.P.No.16753 of 2023
07.06.2023
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