Madhya Pradesh High Court Quashes 2022-23 NEET Merit List Of PG Medical Admissions Prepared By State Govt

The dispute arose in the context of a large number of Government Doctors & Medical Officers being excluded from the eligible Merit List. The State Government had excluded all those Government Doctors & Medical Officers from the Merit List of eligible doctors for 30% In-Service Reservation compartment, who had served in the District Hospitals of the State.

All these doctors were eligible when the NEET Examination took place; the results were declared, & the provisional Merit List was drawn, in which their names were not included, despite the Medical Admission Rules stipulating further inclusion.

The State Government amended the Medical Admission Rules thereafter on 26th July 2022 to exclude all those Government Doctors who had served in District Hospitals of the State, which was challenged by the doctors stating that the rules cannot be altered after the game has begun & the amended rules would apply prospectively from the next academic year only, not the current one.

The High Court through its detailed judgment, a copy of which is awaited, has held that amendment to the Medical Admission rules introduced midway after commencement of the selection process, shall not apply to the current year, but shall apply prospectively from the next year.

Accordingly quashing the entire merit list, the State Government has been directed to redo the entire exercise as per the previously applicable & unamended Medical Admission Rules.

The ongoing counselling process & admissions also, therefore, get stalled with the Judgement of the High Court. The Petitioner doctors (around 30-35 in number) were represented through Advocates Siddharth R. Gupta & Aditya Sanghi, whilst the State was represented through Mr. KC Ghildiyal, Senior Advocate, Mr Rohan Harne & Ms. Janhavi Pandit.

Case citation: 2022 LiveLaw (MP) 217