CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has quashed a revised merit list issued by Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) for admission to MBBS/ BDS courses 2022-23. The authorities of OJEE had published it on October 19, a day after notifying the final state merit list.
The court’s intervention came on Wednesday in response to a petition filed by Abhisek Bhabani Panda, a physically challenged candidate who was placed at No. 5 in the physically challenged category of the final merit list. However, in the revised merit list, his ranking had dropped to 33, thus reducing his chances of getting admission in a government college.
The division bench of justices BR Sarangi and Gourishankar Satapathy said, “It is well settled in law that once the rule of game is started, the same cannot be changed at the midst. Therefore, whatever decision the authority has taken and finalised the merit list, which was published on 18.10.2022, should not have been changed by revising the same on 19.10.2022 because a right has already been accrued in favour of the candidates whose name finds place in the merit list.”
The bench further observed, “Needless to say, the final merit list was published by the authorities in consonance with the law and pursuant to the advertisement issued by them as well as the prospectus provided for. But in the name of subsequent change of law, in the midst publication of revised merit list itself causes great prejudice to the candidates, who had already been selected.”
“In the above view of the matter, this court is of the considered view that the revised final state merit list for MBBS/BDS admission 2022-23 of the OJEE-2022 dated 19.10.2022 cannot sustain in the eye of law and the same is liable to be quashed and is hereby quashed,” the bench ruled.