Notice issued by state Health dept: Medical aspirant moves HC

Kolkata: A medical aspirant, who has not been allotted a seat after first and second round of medical counseling, moved a writ petition at the Calcutta high court on Wednesday challenging a notice issued by the state Health department which the petitioner has claimed to be in contrary to an order issued by the Supreme Court.

According to the Apex Court, the order said that the students who were already allotted a seat in undergraduate medical or dental courses in the first and second round of counselling will not be given any chance to take part in the manual counseling. This is because the other eligible candidates who were not yet allotted seats in the previous two counselling may be deprived if the candidates who have already booked seats get an opportunity to participate in the manual counselling.

It may be mentioned that the Supreme Court had given detailed guidelines on the admission of candidates who had cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). Following the court order, the state Health department had issued a notification on July 7 where it was mentioned that those who were allotted seats in the first two rounds of counselling will not be given an opportunity to take part in the manual counselling which is scheduled to take place on August 26.

But the notification issued by the Director of Medical Education on August 18 was contrary to previous notice issued by the Health department on July 7. The latest notification was also against the Supreme Court order. In the notice issued by the Director of Medical Education on August 18, it was mentioned that those who were already allotted seats in the first two round of counsellings may take part in the manual round of counselling if they desire so which is in gross violation of the Apex Court order, as argued by the lawyer of the petitioner, Md Alauddin Mandal.

Mandal said that if the students who were already allotted seats in the first and second round of counsellings are given an option to appear in the manual counseling, hundreds of successful candidates who were not allotted seats may be deprived of a seat.

A section of students will try to opt for a medical seat in better colleges after securing a seat while the other section will be deprived.