HL: Medical aspirant moves HC, wants to re-appear for NEET from Manipur

Strap: 18-year-old claims she was not given full time when she took help of scribe during test in Kota MUMBAI: Contending that she was not given full time when she appeared for NEET-UG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Under-Graduate medical courses) in Kota, Rajasthan, an 18-year-old medical aspirant has moved the Bombay high court seeking permission to re-appear for the test in Manipur, where it is yet to be held because of communal violence

Strap: 18-year-old claims she was not given full time when she took help of scribe during test in Kota

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MUMBAI: Contending that she was not given full time when she appeared for NEET-UG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Under-Graduate medical courses) in Kota, Rajasthan, an 18-year-old medical aspirant has moved the Bombay high court seeking permission to re-appear for the test in Manipur, where it is yet to be held because of communal violence.

In her petition filed through advocate Madhav Thorat, Dhanashree Jagtap has claimed that though she hails from Tandulwadi in Solapur district, she was taking tuition for NEET-UG in Kota and had appeared for the examination there.

She said that she had a fall at the examination center in Kota on May 7, which resulted in the dislocation of the wrist of her right arm, and as a result, she was unable to answer the test herself.

Jagtap said after getting preliminary treatment at a local hospital, she returned to the examination center and was provided a scribe to write the test, as the center superintendent and the representative of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the exam, had witnessed the incident.

However, according to the petition, the scribe was provided to her only around 3.30 pm — nearly one-and-half-hours after the scheduled start of the examination, which was slated to end at 5.20 pm.

Jagtap claimed that the center superintendent had categorically told her that she would be given full time of three hours 20 minutes and an additional one hour and five minutes to write her examination, as NTA rules for NEET-UG provided for extra 65 minutes to candidates, who are unable to write the exam themselves and are given a scribe or writer.

However, she said, the class supervisor took away her OMR or the answer sheet at 5.20pm while collecting answer sheets from other students, although she had started the exam around 3.40pm.

Jagtap added that she requested the NTA representative and the center superintendent to give her at least the scheduled three hours and 20 minutes, if not the compensatory extra time of one hour and five minutes – given to candidates with scribes or writers, but in vain.

She moved the high court after the NTA did not respond to her representations and reminders submitted between May 8 and May 11, requesting the agency to give her a fair chance to answer the examination by allowing her to appear again for NEET-UG from Manipur, where the exam has been postponed due to violence.

Jagtap has urged the high court to declare that the NTA ought to have given her a fair chance to appear for NEET-UG examination and direct the agency to allow her to appear for the examination against when the examination will be conducted in Manipur.

The petition will come up for hearing before a vacation bench on Friday.