The Meghalaya High Court has come to the aid of a student from the State who was denied medical studies in NEIGRIHMS for certain communication lapses that led to her absence from e-counseling.
Bisakha Goenka an aspirant for admission into the MBBS course at the NEIGRIHMS, after qualifying in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) Examination, had been invited for the second e-counseling for admission into MBBS course for the session 2021-2022, vide notice dated 01.03.2022.
According to the notice, the counseling would be on a virtual platform on March 7 to fill up four vacant seats.
Goenka stated that though the link details for joining the video conference had been communicated by the NEIGRIHMS, the communication landed in her spam mail, and she was not aware that she had received the link for the e-counseling, as the same did not appear either on her registered email id or mobile number, and as such she could not be present on the date and time, when the e-counseling was held.
Being aggrieved thereby as she had stood fourth in the merit list, and was confident that she would be allotted a seat, she approached the High Court by way of a writ petition pleading the court to issue directions to NEIGRIHMS to consider her case for admission.
On March 9, the High Court bench of Justice Harmarsan Singh Thangkhiew after hearing the lawyers for the parties, had directed that the case be kept on hold to await the final acceptance of the seats, for which the candidates would have to comply by March 11.
On March 14 when the matter was taken up again in the court, Goenka had filed an affidavit stating that the candidate No. 4, one Arkajyoti Debnath did not report to NEIGRIHMS as he had already secured admission at Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal and as such the fourth seat was still vacant.
On March 15, NEIGRIHMS also filed an affidavit which admitted that one seat is still vacant. It has also been averred in the affidavit that as Goenka was absent on the date fixed for counseling the contention that the intimation had gone to her spam mail cannot be relied upon, and as per rule, the vacant seat should be given to the first candidate in the waiting list.
During the hearing held on March 15, Justice Thangkhiew observed that in this age of technology and in the prevalent Covid situation, a lot of such lapses have occurred especially when it concerns matters like these which involves communication through digital platforms.
“It is undisputed that the petitioner as per the merit list for the second counseling was placed at No. 4, and as such was assured of a seat for the MBBS course, had she attended the counseling as scheduled, but however, due to the situation that had prevented her from appearing for the e-counseling, she is at risk of being deprived of a seat to pursue the MBBS course. In this view of the matter considering that in the normal circumstances, nothing would have prevented the writ petitioner from tendering her candidature for the said seat, the instant matter being peculiarly situated deserves consideration on a different footing,” Justice Thangkhiew said.
The judge also ordered NEIGRIHMS to facilitate counseling for Goenka via physical mode or otherwise within one week from March 15, with prior notice to her.
“Thereafter, the respondents (NEIGRIHMS) shall take into consideration the merit of the petitioner (Goenka) and complete the process of selection for the fourth seat expeditiously taking into consideration the fact that the session has since commenced. It is also understood that the candidate should fulfill all the criteria as prescribed, to be allotted the said seat,” the High Court said.
