Benefit Of 'Krishna Sradha' Judgment Can Be Availed Only If NEET Candidate Approached Court Without Any Delay: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court observed that the benefit of S. Krishna Sradha v. State of Andhra Pradesh judgment can be availed only if the NEET candidate approached the Court without delay.

In Krishna Sradha, the Supreme Court has observed that, in exceptional cases, a direction can be issued to grant admission to meritorious candidates to MBBS Course even after cut-off date.

One crucial condition is that the student has to approach the Court at the earliest and without any delay, the bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose noted.

In this case, the High Court directed to admit the students to the first year MBBS course for the year 2020-2021 in the vacant seats that existed for the academic year 2019-2020. The order was passed in a writ petition filed by NEET candidates who had alleged that students with lesser merit have been given admission to the MBBS course for the academic year 2019-2020.

Assailing this order, the National Medical Council in its appeal, contended that the judgment in Krishna Sradha cannot come to the rescue of the students as they approached the High Court one and a half year after the last date of admission for the academic year 2019- 2020.

The court noted that in S. Krishna Sradha, the need for providing restitutional remedy in rare cases was highlighted.

"...However, the conditions for grant of relief or for seeking admission to the available courses after the last date have been mentioned in para 33 of the judgment. One crucial condition is that the student has to approach the Court at the earliest and without any delay. It was further mentioned in the judgment that in case admission is directed to be given to the students, the number of seats allotted in the management quota for the next year has to be reduced."

The bench observed that the High Court ought not to have shown indulgence to the writ petitioners by directing admission in the vacant seats that arose in the year 2019-2020 and permit the students to start their course in the academic year 2020-2021.

"We are aware that the interference by this Court would cause loss of an academic year to the students. However, we cannot support the judgment of the High Court in granting admission for the year 2020- 2021 as it is contrary to the judgment of this Court in S. Krishna Sradha (supra) case. The students approached the High Court almost one and a half year after the last date of admission of the first year MBBS course for the academic year 2019-2020", the Court said while setting aside the High Court direction.

Case: Medical Council of India vs. Ritwik [CA 4438 of 2021 ]
Coram: Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose
Counsel: AOR Gaurav Sharma for appellant, Sr. Adv P.V. Surendranath, Sr. Adv Vinay Navare, AOR Subhasish Bhowmick
Citation: LL 2021 SC 335

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