HC allows Solapur girl to reappear for NEET-UG

Bombay High Court allows medical aspirant from Solapur district to reappear for NEET-UG at Bengaluru on June 6, after missing her exam due to a wrist injury.

The Bombay high court on Thursday allowed a medical aspirant from Solapur district to reappear for NEET-UG (national eligibility cum entrance test - undergraduate) at Bengaluru on June 6, where the examination will be held for candidates from violence-hit Manipur.

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A vacation bench of justice Manish Pitale and justice Neela Gokhale was hearing a petition filed by Dhanashree Jagtap, 18.

Her counsel, advocate Madhav Thorat, said she had prepared for the test in Rajasthan’s Kota and was to write the exam on May 7. However, on that day, she had a fall at an examination centre which resulted in wrist dislocation on her right arm, Thorat said, adding the centre’s superintendent and the representative of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducted the exam, witnessed the incident.

After getting preliminary treatment at a nearby hospital, she returned to the centre and was provided with a scribe to write the test, the counsel said. The scribe was made available to her only around 3.30 pm - one-and-a-half hours after the scheduled time of the examination, but the centre superintendent assured her that she would be given the full time of 3 hours 20 minutes and an additional 65 minutes to write her answers, as per the NTA rules, Thorat said.

The petitioner started writing around 3.40 pm but barely 1 hour and 40 minutes later, the exam supervisor took away her answer sheet at 5.20 pm, the advocate said. Jagtap then requested the NTA representative and the centre’s superintendent to give her at least the scheduled 3 hours 20 minutes, if not the extra 65 minutes, but in vain, the plea said.

Thorat said she then wrote to the NTA between May 8 and May 11, requesting the agency to allow her to appear again for NEET-UG along with students from Manipur where the exam had been postponed due to the violence, but did not get any response.

On May 17, she approached the Bombay HC.

The bench on Thursday said the entire episode was unfortunate and the petitioner should be given a fair opportunity to again write the examination. After the NTA’s counsel, Shehnaz Bharucha, did not raise any objection, the HC permitted Jagtap to reappear for the test, subject to further orders on her petition.

The HC also clarified that her result would be declared only after the court’s permission and posted the petition for further hearing on June 26.