Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday refused to recognise a medical aspirant’s score as valid for having secured in the third and impermissible improvement round. Omkar Chavan, 19, failed to secure 50% marks – the minimum required to appear for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), an all-India pre-medical entrance test – in three attempts, he made the fourth attempt and eventually secured a 73.67 score.
The division bench of justice Ravindra Ghuge and justice Arun Pednekar dismissed the petition filed by Chavan seeking direction to the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education to issue him a mark list showing the updated score.
In his petition, the teenager stated that he had appeared for the HSC science examination in a regular course in February / March 2020, but since he secured less than 50% marks and as such was unable to apply for NEET, he made first improvement attempt in October / November 2020.
He then applied for a second improvement examination in March 2021, but due to the pandemic, the examination was postponed and held six months later. As he did not secure the desired score, he again appeared for the third improvement examination in February / March 2022.
This time he had scored 73.67%, but the Board, however, refused to issue him a hard copy of the mark list. Chavan then moved high court, contending that it was not permissible for the Board to withhold his mark list and refuse to issue him a hard copy, having permitted him to fill the form, appear for the examination and even declare the result online.
The Board, however, took the stand that under the prevailing regulations, Chavan was entitled to only two improvement attempts and not the third one and therefore the Board was justified in withholding his result of the third attempt.
It claimed that the college through which he filled the form for the third improvement attempt, either failed to verify facts or acted in collusion with the student and purposely allowed him to appear for the impermissible third round by issuing him an admit card.
HC accepted the stand of the Board and refused relief to the 19-year-old.
“In view of the specific stand of the Board that only two improvement attempts are permissible and petitioner having exhausted the same, we cannot direct the respondent Board to issue marksheet of the third improvement examination which was an impermissible attempt,” said the bench while dismissing his petition. “Only because the petitioner was illegally allotted an admit card, would not legitimise the 3rd attempt,” it added.