The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has directed the Directorate of Medical Education to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a student who was not able to register himself for the NEET counselling due to poor network coverage. While passing the order, Justice GR Swaminathan observed that if a student is deprived of their entitlement because of digital divide, the state is obliged to compensate them. The order was passed on July 13 while hearing a petition filed by a student from Narikudi village of Thiruvidaimaruthur, who passed NEET examination but could not secure a medical seat due to poor internet connectivity.
The student secured 409 marks in NEET, but was not selected in the first round of counselling and was kept on the waiting list. He had received a text message on the evening of April 7 at around 7.30 pm saying that he should register himself on an online portal before 10 pm the same night. His repeated attempts to register himself in the portal were unsuccessful due to technical glitches, including poor internet connectivity and issues in receiving One Time Password (OTP) to make the registration. Meanwhile, those who scored marks lesser than him were allotted seats under the management quota.
As the student could not secure a seat, he approached the court. Observing that the student cannot be admitted for the current year, the court raised the question should “the issue of digital divide raised by the petitioner go unanswered”.
Further, observing that the student failed to get a seat only because of online glitches, the court said that the situation might have been avoided if the Directorate of Medical Education adopted a dual mode of counselling – physical and online – or if enough time was given to the student to register himself in the portal. “These “ifs” haunt me,” the judge saud and directed the Directorate of Medical Education to reconsider the mode of selection in the light of the experience undergone by this student.
“Digitisation is the road ahead. It should lead to empowerment and not deprivation. The ground reality is that there is a digital divide in the society,” the judge said, adding that if the student is deprived of an entitlement because of the digital divide, the state should compensate him. The court has ordered a compensation of Rs one lakh to the student, which should be paid to him within eight weeks. The judge also directed the Directorate of Medical Education to ensure that the selection process is held in such a way that similar incidents do not happen again.
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