BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday imposed Rs 1 lakh cost on the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) for unilaterally cancelling the allotment of an MD seat in Respiratory Medicine to Dr Rajesh Kumar D under in-service quota, and allotting it in favour of Dr Pradeep Naik illegally.
The division bench of Chief Justice P S Dinesh Kumar and Justice T G Shivashankare Gowda allowed the petition filed by Dr Rajesh, who was working as assistant surgeon at Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, questioning the action of KEA, which allotted the seat to Naik clandestinely.
The seat allotted to Dr Rajesh was cancelled a month after he gained admission to Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, after a letter dated February 25, 2022, written by the Deputy Director of Medical Education (DME) to KEA to cancel the seat, was shared on WhatsApp. After cancellation, the seat was not shown in the second round of counselling but was allotted to Dr Naik.
Therefore, the court said KEA has failed to demonstrate how the seat was allotted to Dr Naik in the second round of counselling, without there being any seat available.
Directing KEA to allot the seat in favour of Dr Rajesh, the court cancelled the letter through which the seat allotted to Dr Rajesh was cancelled. Of Rs 1 lakh imposed as cost, Rs 50,000 was to be paid to Dr Rajesh, and the remaining to be deposited with the high court’s Registrar General, the court said. The counsel for KEA offered to allot a vacant seat in the same course in the same institution to Dr Rajesh.