The Rajasthan High Court (HC) has halted the finalisation of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 admissions under the state quota today, November 28. The court cited possible errors in the merit list that allowed candidates with lower marks to secure admissions over higher-scoring applicants.
The petitioners, a group of 45 MBBS graduates who appeared for NEET-PG 2024, argued that the admissions process was flawed. They alleged that these flaws included procedural or technical mistakes in calculating ranks.
In his order, Justice Dinesh Mehta noted, "This Court is of the prima-facie view that some error has crept in, maybe because the respondents have taken raw marks secured by the candidates...instead of taking normalized marks or otherwise."
The court found substance in the petitioners' claims after reviewing evidence, including the Provisional State Merit List and related documents.
The petitioners pointed out that a similar issue had arisen in other states, with the Madhya Pradesh High Court recently intervening in a comparable case.
Representing the petitioners, advocate Kailash Jangid highlighted discrepancies in the merit list, which he claimed unfairly affected deserving candidates. The court observed that the respondent Rajasthan State Counselling Board had not adequately addressed these concerns.
The court granted the Counselling Board seven days to investigate and rectify the issue, instructing it to prepare a revised list that considers the concerns raised.
"The respondent no.3 – Counselling Board shall not finalize the list of candidates... It shall, however, be free to find out the error and prepare a fresh list for consideration of the Court (.sic)," the order, which EdexLive has access to, stated.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on December 5, 2024. Until then, the admissions process remains paused, in order to ensure transparency and fairness for all candidates.
