Candidates must act with alacrity in submitting applications, and awareness of the requirement to apply separately for Central and State quotas is crucial. Courts will not condone repeated mistakes and erroneous attempts to link previous court orders with subsequent actions.

JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of a writ of certiorarified mandamus calling for the records of the impugned “Prospectus for admission to post graduate degree/diploma courses in Management Quota including NRI of Self Financing Medical Colleges in Tamil Nadu 2020-2021 Session as per G.O.[D] No.319, Health and Family Wealth [MCA-1] Department dated 11.03.2020 and as amended from time to time” dated 12.03.2020 issued by the 2nd respondent and quash the same insofar as it stipulates a last date for submission of application by the petitioner and direct the 2nd respondent to allot a seat to the petitioner in NEET-PG 2020 if found eligible.)

1. The present writ petition has been filed challenging the Prospectus issued by the 2nd respondent for admission to Post Graduate Degree / Diploma Courses, insofar as it stipulates a last date for submission of application and for a consequential direction to the 2nd respondent to allot a seat to the petitioner if found eligible.

2. The petitioner completed her MBBS Course and has registered herself before the Tamil Nadu Medical Council. The petitioner belongs to Muslim “Labbai class” which is treated as a “Backward Community” by the State Government.

3. The petitioner participated in the NEET Examination and secured 250 marks. The petitioner applied for NEET-PG under “General Category”. The cut-off mark for “General Category” was fixed as 366 marks and for the “Other Backward Class [OBC] Category”, it was fixed as 319 marks. The petitioner did not fall within the cut-off marks during the first and second round of the counseling conducted by the National Board of Examination [NBE], New Delhi. This pertains to the counseling under the Central quota.

4. The cut-off marks was reduced during the mop-up round for General candidates from 366 marks to 275 marks and for OBC candidates from 319 marks to 230 marks.

5. At this point of time, the petitioner realised that even though she belongs to “OBC Category”, she had wrongly mentioned in the application form that she belongs to “General Category”. The petitioner immediately approached this Court and filed WP.No.9838 of 2020 to direct the NBE to permit the petitioner to participate in the mop up round counseling as an OBC candidate. The final order passed by this Court in WP.No.9838 of 2020, dated 27.07.2020 is extracted hereunder:-

“11. It is clear from the above judgments that this Court has taken a consistent view in matters of this nature where it is found that a inadvertent mistake has been committed by a candidate while filling the application. This Court does not want to take a different view and rather, will fall in line with the earlier views expressed by this Court.

12. In view of the above discussion, this writ petition is disposed of with the following directions:

(a) The 2nd respondent is directed to place the petitioner at the bottom of the merit list meant for Other Backward Class community candidates who have been called for the counseling for the Post Graduation course.

(b) After filling up the seats based on the merit list already prepared in respect of Other Backward Class candidates, if any vacancies arise, the case of the petitioner shall be considered by treating him as an Other Backward Class candidate, provided that the petitioner satisfies all the requirements, and

(c) The candidates who are already shown in the Other Backward Class category in the merit list shall not be disturbed in any manner by the intervention of the petitioner, who is directed to be considered as an Other Backward Class candidate. No costs.”

6. The petitioner participated in the said counseling and she was not able to get any seat under the Central quota.

7. Insofar as the State quota is concerned, a separate Prospectus is issued by the 2nd respondent and a candidate has to separately apply under this quota. The applications were received on-line from 15.07.2020 to 18.07.2020 and the petitioner