TN NEET 2025 aspirant who missed MBBS seat over fee gets HC relief as mother ‘pledges gold jewels’

In an unprecedented move and much relief to a Tamil Nadu MBBS aspirant, the Madras high court directed the Madha Medical College to admit the student who was unable to join the allotted seat due to non-payment of fee before the deadline owing to lack of funds. The candidate was allotted the college in the third round of the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) UG counselling 2025.

The petitioner moved the HC after she was denied MBBS admission under the minority quota to the TN medical college as he could not submit a demand draft of Rs 15 lakh by the last date of reporting. The selection committee allowed seat allotted candidates to bring the documents and make the fee payment for Tamil Nadu NEET UG round 3 counselling 2025 by November 8.

Considering the merit of the candidate in NEET UG 2025 and the financial circumstances, the court considered exercising “extraordinary jurisdiction”. It also admitted that the petitioner did not leave the course “intentionally”. Notably, the seat had been marked vacant and was made open for the stray vacancy round of the NEET UG state counselling 2025.

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“Ultimately, instead of the MBBS seat going to the hands of the less meritorious student, it will be more appropriate if the petitioner is able to get the seat, as a meritorious student,” the HC observed. It also debunked the respondents’ claims that it set a bad precedent for other aspirants who failed to join the college for whatsoever reason.

“This order cannot be applied to all the cases where the candidates do not join the course, within the time stipulated and therefore, the apprehension on the part of the respondents that this order will open flood-gates is too far-fetched,” the court stated.

Issues faced by MBBS aspirant

Due to his “sheer bad luck”, the petitioner’s mother struggled to collect the MBBS fees by pledging her jewels only to find out that the last date of reporting – November 8 – was a second Saturday and the banks were closed. The student was not able to send the amount through NEFT or RTGS. Another issue was that the payment gateway in the portal only showed the options of nearly eight banks and the petitioner's mother had a bank account in TMB Bank. The earliest point of time when they could pay the fee was November 11.

The court also took note of the fact that the student scored 251 in NEET 2025 and comes from a poort background as his mother has studied only up to Class 10 while father worked as a painter outside India.

Also read Maharashtra CET Cell allows MBBS aspirant to participate in NEET stray round counselling 2025

“The petitioner is aspiring to become a doctor and had put all efforts to join MBBS course. For the score secured by the petitioner, she was able to get a seat in the 4th respondent college. What stood between the petitioner and the fourth respondent, was a sum of Rs 15,00,000 which had to be paid to the fourth respondent-college towards fees,” the court noted.

The student and his mother tried to contact the college about not being able to deposit the tuition fee, however, they didn’t get any response.

Tamil Nadu NEET UG seat allotment 2025 was declared on November 3. “Ultimately, the petitioner's mother had to pledge whatever gold jewels that are available with her and she was able to get the amount only on 08.11.2025. Since 08.11.2025, was a second Saturday, it was a bank holiday. Therefore, the petitioner was not able to take the demand draft or make the payment through NEFT or RTGS mode.”

Problems with MBBS admissions

Besides having an “unoccupied” seat, the respondent college was also bound to follow the fixed schedules, giving no exemption under any circumstances, the special counsel submitted to the court on behalf of the state government, college, and selection committee.

“...in the case of the petitioner, there may be many other candidates who would not have been able to join the course due to non-availability of funds and if the case of the petitioner is positively considered, it will set a bad precedent and every other candidate will knock the doors of the Court and seek for a similar relief,” the college submitted.

Moreover, this would have hampered the stray vacancy round counselling which ended on November 14. Hence, the college did not provide the relief to the MBBS aspirant.