NEET UG 2023: Bombay High Court allows girl to reappear for exam being held specially for Manipur students

MUMBAI : The Bombay High Court on Thursday permitted a 18-year-old girl to reappear for the National Entrance Examination Test Under Graduate (NEET-UG) to be held for the second time for students of strife-torn Manipur as she could not complete the exam paper the first time due to a broken wrist.

A vacation bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Neela Gokhale heard a plea filed by Dhanashree Jagatap seeking permission to reappear for the exam. According to Jagatap, she arrived at the NEET-UG examination centre on May 7 but fell on the ground due to rush in the queue, resulting in dislocation of her right wrist joint. She was taken to a nearby hospital and was later brought back to the centre where she was allotted a writer, Jagatap said in the plea. However, while the time period for the exam was three hours and 20 minutes, she started the exam late but was not given extra time to finish her paper, due to which she could not attempt the last part pertaining to Physics subject, Jagatap's plea said.

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Seeking a direction to the National Testing Agency to permit her to reappear, Jagatap, in her plea, said although the NEET-UG examination is conducted only once every year, this year due to sudden outbreak of violence in Manipur, NEET-UG 2023 examination is being held separately for students of that state. The re-examination for students from Manipur is to be held in Bengaluru in Karnataka on June 6.

When the plea came up for hearing on Thursday, the Union government said it was willing to permit Jagatap to reappear for the exam on June 6 but on the condition that she shall not rely on the marks obtained by her in the May 7 examination. Accepting this, the court said Jagatap shall be permitted to appear for NEET-UG 2023 examination along with the students from Manipur at a centre in Bengaluru, adding that concerned authorities shall take appropriate steps to facilitate her in appearing for the said examination. "The petitioner shall file an undertaking within a week from today that she shall not rely upon the attempt she had given on 7th May 2023 for the NEET-UG 2023 examination," the HC said.