HC awards compensation to student who lost out on MBBS admission

However, the court did not reverse the admission already granted. Priyanka Bamane (17) had approached the High Court in September last year claiming that another student, Akshay Patil, who had a lower score in the Common Entrance Test was granted admission to the first year MBBS course in Ahmednagar Medical College.

While Patil had scored 136 in the CET, Bamane had scored 137. According to the petition, a seat became available at the college in September but instead of notifying about the vacancy on its website or in a newspaper, the college granted admission to Patil.

The college claimed that it had placed an advertisement in a newspaper, and as only Patil applied, he was granted the admission. "No useful purpose will be served by cancelling the admission granted to Akshay. At the same time the arbitrary action on the part of the authorities cannot be condoned. The college did not notify the vacancy on its website and gave the advertisement in a Nagpur-based paper when the college was situated in Pune," the division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S J Kathawalla observed.

The bench remarked that the college should not be allowed to go "scot-free" and directed it to pay Rs three lakh as a compensation to Bamane. "The college's action shows malafide intentions. The admission granted to Akshay was done in an unfair and non-transparent manner," the court observed.