MADURAI: On Saturday afternoon, V Shanmuganpriya from Madurai had her dream of becoming a doctor almost in tatters when she saw another NEET aspirant’s photograph and signature on her admit card. Desperate and running out of time, she approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. The court came to her rescue as it stayed up late into the night and handed her its order at 1:15 am on Sunday, allowing her to take the examination the same day.
Daughter of a truck driver S Vengadesan from Madurai, Shanmuganpriya was shocked to see the photograph and signature of another candidate —Alex Pandian — when she downloaded her admit card.
Following a plea from Vengadesan, administrative judge M Duraiswamy scheduled an urgent hearing on Saturday night, which was followed by a physical hearing by Justice R Suresh Kumar at 9 pm. Though the Central government counsel argued that the girl might have made the mistake at the time of applying, the judge said the court cannot unearth the reasons for the mismatch at this point.
Justice Kumar directed the authorities of the examination centre concerned to permit Shanmuganpriya to attend the exam. Since the National Testing Agency (NTA) was not available for response during the hearing, the judge said the agency can file its objections, if any, at the next hearing on September 27.