Himachal High Court directs admission of NEET-qualified candidate to MBBS course, awards Rs 1 lakh costs against university

Shimla, Nov 4

Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed Atal Medical and Research University (AMRU), Nerchowk, to grant admission to a Scheduled Caste candidate in the MBBS course for the 2026-27 academic session in any Government Medical College in the state, after holding that she was unfairly deprived of an opportunity to participate in the second round of counselling due to a technical failure in the online payment system.

Justice Sandeep Sharma, while allowing a petition filed by Anjali Kaundal, directed the university authorities to complete the admission process within two weeks. The court also imposed costs of Rs 1 lakh on the university for causing mental agony and harassment to the candidate and compelling her to approach the court despite there being no fault on her part.

The petitioner had secured 442 marks out of 720 in NEET-UG 2026 and figured at merit number 1,090 in the state counselling list under the Scheduled Caste category. She had deposited the requisite security fee of Rs 1 lakh through NEFT/RTGS on September 8, 2026, within the prescribed deadline for participating in the second round of counselling.

However, the payment did not reflect on the online counselling portal, preventing her from filling in her college preferences before the September 9 deadline. Despite repeatedly approaching the university through emails and personal visits, the authorities failed to resolve the discrepancy in time.

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The university informed the court that the counselling portal was managed by Juno Software Private Limited and the payment was reflected in its ERP system only on September 29, nearly three weeks after the deadline for choice filling.

The High Court observed that the university failed to verify the payment through bank records and other financial documents despite the petitioner having submitted convincing proof of the transaction. It held that a candidate who had deposited the prescribed fee within time could not be penalised for a technical failure of the online system.

Rejecting the respondents’ contention that the MBBS admission process had already concluded on October 26, the court relied upon Supreme Court judgments in *Asha versus Pt. B.D. Sharma University of Health Sciences* and *S. Krishna Sradha versus State of Andhra Pradesh*.

The court also noted that candidates securing fewer marks than the petitioner had been granted admission during the second round of counselling.

Allowing the petition, the court directed the university to provide her admission in accordance with her NEET merit, eligibility, category and applicable admission criteria. It further ordered AMRU to pay Rs 1 lakh as litigation costs within two weeks.

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