Cannot Avail 2 Privileges at the Same Time: Odisha HC Junks MBBS Aspirant’s Plea

The Orissa High Court has officially dismissed a writ petition filed by a NEET-UG aspirant who was denied an MBBS seat under the State Government School (SGS) quota during the OJEE Spot/Stray Round counselling. The Court firmly ruled that a candidate cannot claim the benefits of two separate privileges at the exact same time.

The Eligibility Conflict: CHSE vs. NIOS

The legal dispute centered around the candidate’s Class 12 qualifying certificates. According to the State’s submission, the petitioner initially secured only 49.66% marks in his CHSE (State Board) examinations in 2014, which fell short of the minimum eligibility criteria required for medical education.

To overcome this, the candidate subsequently improved his Chemistry score through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in 2022. By combining the marks criteria from these two different educational boards, he successfully established his basic eligibility to apply for NEET-UG and participate in the counselling process. However, when vacant seats became available under the Unreserved-SGS category during the Spot/Stray Round counselling, the authorities denied his admission under the reserved quota.

The High Court’s Ruling

The petitioner argued that since the authorities accepted his NIOS improvement score for basic eligibility, denying him the SGS reservation amounted to an unfair contradiction.

The Orissa High Court, however, found no merit in the plea. The Court explicitly observed that the SGS reservation is only available to candidates who produce a single qualifying Class 12 certificate from the State Board containing the prescribed minimum marks. The bench noted that while the improvised NIOS score gave him the privilege of basic medical eligibility, he could not simultaneously claim the privilege of the SGS reservation, which strictly requires relying on a single State Board certificate. Consequently, the petition was dismissed