The Karnataka High Court dismissed a petition seeking post-result correction of category in NEET-PG 2025, underscoring that candidates cannot alter their application details after results are declared. The Court observed that allowing such changes post-examination would disrupt the integrity and fairness of the admission process.
The petitioner, who had appeared in NEET-PG 2025 as a General Merit candidate, sought to change her category to Other Backward Classes (OBC) after the results were announced. She claimed to belong to the Nekar community under OBC and requested the Court to direct the authorities to modify her application and recalculate the merit list. The petitioner had missed the correction window provided in the bulletin, which was available from March 9 to March 11, 2025.
The petitioner’s counsel relied on two previous Karnataka High Court judgments, Dr. Lakshmi P. Gowda vs. National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences and Bhanusri S. vs. The State of Karnataka, Department of Education, arguing that similar corrections were permitted in those cases.
The respondents, represented by the Deputy Solicitor General, AGA, and other counsel, countered that the petitioner had a clear opportunity to correct the application within the stipulated window but failed to do so. They emphasized that allowing a post-result change would unfairly affect the entire merit list and disrupt the examination process. They also cited the Madras High Court’s ruling in Minor S. Jeyathinathan vs. National Testing Agency, where a similar request was rejected, and the Supreme Court subsequently dismissed the Special Leave Petition challenging that judgment.
The Bench carefully examined the petitioner’s reliance on prior judgments and clarified that both cited cases were distinguishable. In Dr. Lakshmi P. Gowda, the Court had explicitly stated that the judgment should not be treated as precedent for future cases. In Bhanusri S., the correction was allowed before the result declaration, unlike the present case where the petitioner approached the Court post-result.
The Court stated verbatim, "Once a candidate has filled up his/her form for NEET-UG/PG belonging to a particular category and fails to correct the application during the period provided by the National Testing Agency, a candidate, after declaration of the result, would not be entitled to change his/her category."
The Court dismissed the writ petition, holding that post-result correction of category is impermissible. The Court emphasized that the integrity of the examination and merit-based selection must be maintained, and no exception could be made for the petitioner. The dismissal was ordered without costs.
Case Title: Dr. C.Anusha Vs. Nation National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences & Ors.
Case No.: Writ Petition No. 27597 of 2025 (Edn-Res)
Coram: Justice D K Singh, Justice Venkatesh Naik T
Advocate for Petitioner: Adv. Vishnu Kant Tiwari
Advocate for Respondent: Advs. Shanthi Bhushan H., N.K.Ramesh, Sudev Hegde
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