Admissions secured on merit should not be annulled due to technical lapses beyond the control of students or institutions, as it undermines justice and the principle of merit.

JUDGMENT :

MANISH PITALE, J.

Rule in both the writ petitions. Rule is made returnable forthwith. With the consent of learned counsel for the parties, the writ petitions are heard finally, at the stage of admission.

2. A student and a Dental College are before this Court as the admission granted to the student is now in peril as a consequence of the impugned communications dated 02.12.2024 and 18.12.2024 issued by the respondent no. 1 – Dental Council of India (National Dental Commission). The respondent no. 1, by the impugned communication, has threatened the management and the Dental College with action under section 10-B of the DENTISTS ACT , 1948, on the ground that the admission of the student that was allegedly irregularly completed, ought not to continue.

3. The events leading to the filing of these two petitions are that the petitioner in writ petition no. 397 of 2025 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the student’) completed her under-graduate course in Dentistry and appeared in entrance examination for admission to Post Graduate Course i.e. M.D.S. in Oral Medicine and Radiology. After various rounds of admission, as per undisputed norms, when a stray vacancy arose in the Rural Dental College at Loni, District – Ahilyanagar (respondent no. 4 in the writ petition filed by the student and the petitioner itself in the companion petition), the student applied for admission in the said stray vacancy.

4. As per established procedure, the Medical Counselling Committee, the Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (NEET – MDS Counselling – 2024), considered the candidature of the student on merits; found her eligible for admission to the stray vacancy in the said Dental College under the special stray vacancy round and issued a provisional admission letter. This letter was generated on 24.10.2024 at 10.41 am. The student, armed with the said provisional admission letter, issued by the aforesaid Medical Counselling Committee, approached the Dental College for admission in the stray vacancy on 24.10.2024. The Dental College accepted the student for admission, upon verification of all her documents and demanded fees and other charges for confirming the admission.

5. The documents on record show that on 24.10.2024 itself, all the documents of the student were verified by the Dental College, necessary undertakings and affidavits of the student and guardian were submitted, entire fees including tuition fees, eligibility fees, blazer charges, processing fees etc. were paid through online payment mode on 24.10.2024 itself.

6. As per the circular dated 16.10.2024 issued by the respondent no. 1 – Dental Council of India, it was incumbent upon a Dental College to have uploaded all these documents, confirming the admission of the student by midnight of 25.10.2024.

7. It is the case of the Dental College that due to the fact that there was lack of connectivity because of heavy rainfall in the rural area where the Dental College is located, the attempts to upload the documents within the stipulated period of time and date, could not succeed. In this situation, on 26.10.2024, the Dental College addressed a communication to the respondent no. 1 – Dental Council of India, confirming that the student was admitted in the said stray vacancy round as per the provisional admission letter issued by the Medical Counselling Committee (NEET – MDS Counselling – 2024), but all the documents pertaining to confirmation of the admission could not be uploaded due to connectivity issue in the rural area where the Dental College is located.

8. In this backdrop, the student joined