Karnataka HC comes to rescue of meritorious student

The High Court of Karnataka has passed an interim order directing the National Board of Examination to permit the admission of a student for the Fellowship of National Board (FNB) course in Sports Medicine at Ganga Medical Centre and Hospital at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.

The student-petitioner BS Sujith, a native of Challakere in Chitradurga district, had secured 15th rank in the Fellowship Entrance Test (FET) 2020.

In the two rounds of counselling, he did not accept the seat allotted to him and sought for participating in the final mop-up round. In the middle of the counselling process, a circular was issued on March 11, 2021, indicating that only registered candidates who have not been allotted seats in the first two rounds of counselling will be eligible to take part in the mop-up round. The petitioner was informed that on account of the allotted seats rejected by him, he would not be eligible to take part in the mop-up round.

The petitioner contended that a subsequent clarification issued on March 23, 2021, stated that candidates who did not accept the seat and also not paid the fee are however eligible to participate in the mop-up round. The petitioner’s contention was that he had not accepted the seat and had also not paid the fee. He also said that the authorities had allotted Sports Medicine seats to three candidates who secured All India Rankings of 63, 67 and 80.

A division bench, headed by Justice Aravind Kumar, pointed out that the subsequent clarification runs contrary to the first circular. Observing that March 31 was the last date for admission, the bench directed the respondent to permit Sujith to be admitted at Ganga Medical Centre and Hospital at Mettupalyam in Coimbatore. The court, however, said admissions shall be subject to the petition’s outcome.