Karnataka HC comes to the rescue of physically challenged student who missed admission deadline by seconds

"At times, life plays tricks with persons and they become victims of circumstances, as has happened with the petitioner, a brilliant girl belonging to the minority community. No prejudice would be caused to anyone if she is allotted the seat in question," observed a division bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice P Krishna Bhat of the Karnataka High Court.

And by saying this, it came to the rescue of a physically challenged student, Tazeen Inamdar, whose medical seat for the UG MBBS course was cancelled by Belgaum Institute of Medical Sciences as she sent her fresh disability certificate late by a mere few seconds against the 5 pm deadline. Even though she did send it through WhatsApp on time.

The division bench directed the institute to accommodate her.

Once all admission formalities were completed, the student began attending the academic session with effect from March 28, 2022. On the very same day, the Nodal Officer of the institution informed her that her admission has been cancelled, disregarding her request for reconsideration of candidature in as much as the UG counselling 2021 was extended by the Medical Counseling Committee till 5 pm on March 31, 2022.

Tazeen Inamdar procured the certificate of disability from designated Goa Medical College on March 31, 2022 at around 5 pm and sent the soft copy of the same both through Whatsapp and email. However, by the time these messages were looked into by the Nodal Officer, the cut-off time of 5 pm was already over and the medical seat in question was allotted to some other student.

Hence, Tazeen Inamdar knocked on the doors of the Karnataka High Court.

After hearing the arguments, the court said that no prejudice would be caused to anyone if she is allotted the seat in question since other students have already procured admission elsewhere. Otherwise, the vacant seat would go waste and that is not in the interest of anyone.

Justice of the case warrants, the poor petitioner being accommodated in the vacancy so that she would emerge as a good doctor to serve the society at large, in due course. It is significant to note that the petitioner, admittedly, has been attending the classes in the institute from day one till now and therefore, there is no reason to deny the seat in question on the ground of loss of attendance or the like, the court added.