SC refuses to entertain plea against allotment of vacant MBBS seats to lower-merit students

NEW DELHI: In a dramatic turn in the NEET-UG fake-certificate scandal in the Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court on Monday confronted the State with a pointed question, “Wouldn’t a higher-merit student get heartburn seeing a lower-merit candidate get a better seat?”, but it refused to entertain a plea, citing risk of ‘creating chaos.’The query came from a Bench comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice N.V. Anjaria, which heard the urgent plea of 18-year-old Jiya Jain, who challenged the diversion of fraud-vacated MBBS seats to lower-ranked candidates.The petitioner argued that forged freedom fighter, government seat and PWD (Public Works Dept) certificates had enabled ineligible students to take high-value MBBS seats, which later became vacant once FIRs were filed and admissions were cancelled.The petitioner, Jiya Jain, was represented by Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, along with Advocates Abhay Anturkar, Rajesh G. Inamdar and Shashwat Anand.Responding to the Court’s sharp question on merit being compromised, the counsel for the State and the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) submitted that Jain was not the only one affected.“There may be numerous higher-ranked candidates similarly situated who had already opted for other colleges and are equally barred,” the State argued.



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