NEET 2021: Karnataka exempts penalty for surrendering engineering seats

NEW DELHI: The Karnataka government has decided to exempt those candidates from penalty charges who are enrolling for medical courses after securing engineering seats. This exemption is provided due to the delay in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exams.

“Due to the delay in the NEET examination this time, the penalty charge for students who have already secured an engineering seat and now enrolling in the medical course has been cancelled,” said Ashwathnarayan CN, minister of higher education, Karnataka. He further asked to refund the fees collected and said that this exemption is available only for this year.

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ಈ ಬಾರಿಯ NEET ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ ವಿಳಂಬವಾದ ಕಾರಣ ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ಎಂಜಿನಿಯರಿಂಗ್ ಸೀಟು ಪಡೆದು ಈಗ ವೈದ್ಯಕೀಯ ಕೋರ್ಸ್‌ಗೆ ಪ್ರವೇಶ ಪಡೆಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಿಗೆ ವಿಧಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ದಂಡ ಶುಲ್ಕ ರದ್ದುಪಡಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ.

ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಿಂದ ಸಂಗ್ರಹಿಸಿದ್ದ ಶುಲ್ಕವನ್ನೂ ಹಿಂದಿರುಗಿಸಲು ಸೂಚಿಸಲಾಗಿದ್ದು ಈ ವಿನಾಯಿತಿ ಈ ವರ್ಷಕ್ಕೆ ಮಾತ್ರ‌ ಅನ್ವಯವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.

— Dr. Ashwathnarayan C. N. (@drashwathcn) February 11, 2022

According to the rules of the Karnataka higher education department, candidates who hold on to the engineering seats and later surrender them after the casual vacancy round are supposed to pay a penalty amounting to six times the fee of the course.

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Due to the Supreme Court hearing regarding the NEET UG issue, the counselling process got delayed, and hence many students were not willing to surrender the engineering seats they got without getting a confirmation regarding the medical seats.