Madhya Pradesh HC permits tribal girl to re-register for last phase of NEET counselling

INDORE: In a relief to a tribal girl, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed that she should be allowed to re-register for the last phase of counselling of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), after she submitted the form under a wrong category.

Admitting the writ petition filed by 19-year-old Purva Balke of Barwani district, the division bench of Justices Vivek Rusia and Rajendra Kumar Varma directed that she be given an opportunity to register for the last phase of NEET counselling.

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The bench, in its decision on Tuesday, said, "It is very unfortunate that the petitioner, an ST category student from a remote tribal area who pursued her studies up to Class 12 and cleared NEET examination with a good rank, has inadvertently submitted the registration form under a wrong category and did not correct the same before the last date."

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The petitioner had submitted the form under NRI category and did not correct the same before the last date. “As a special case, looking at the overall facts and circumstances of the case, we are hereby directing respondents to permit the petitioner to participate in the last round of counselling by re-registration and the same shall not be treated as a precedent," the court said.

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As per the plea, the tribal student had appeared for NEET-2021 and ranked 4,540 under the Scheduled Tribe category, while her All-India rank was 2,24,236. While filling her form online for NEET counselling, Balke had inadvertently selected NRI quota instead of ST category, following which she was not allowed to take part in the counselling.