National Board of Examinations told to accept 38 students’ online applications

Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana on pointing out that low internet speed and power outage are perennial problems faced even in the Metropolitan cities, said “Therefore, no malafides can be imputed to these candidates who could not remit the fees online in the absence of any alternative mode.”

However, the judge on holding that though the initiative taken by the NBE in receiving the application online throughout the country is a laudable one, also pointed out that “better connectivity has to be addressed or provisions ought to have been made for an alternative method for a situation like the present case.” As per the case, a group of students drawn from different districts in Tamil Nadu had gone to internet centres to make their application form online. Though they were successful till the stage of applying and getting it registered, they were unsuccessful in completing the procedure by paying the required fees.

Further, the judge on citing an identical situation, wherein the court through an order on April 20, 2017, had disposed of the same by issuing a positive direction to the NBE and that a division bench also had upheld it, said, “In the light of the above facts, while not extending the time for application or changing the date of the examination, NBE could favourably consider the requests of these petitioners to receive the payment fee for NEET-UG-2017 Examination through Real-time Gross Settlement Systems (RTGS) on or before May 2 and enable them sit for the exams.”