Cuttack: Orissa high court on Wednesday dismissed the plea of a NEET candidate who was seeking compensation for being prevented from participating in the All-India quota (AIQ) mop-up and stray vacancy rounds due to a technical glitch in the web portal for counselling for admission to UG medical stream-MBBS/BDS based on the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET).

The division bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh declined to interfere as the petition apparently involved ‘a disputed question of fact’.
Aryan Swarup Parida of Old Town area in Bhubaneswar filed the petition on December 22, 2022. Initially, the petitioner sought admission to a UG MBBS/BDS course in a govt college based on UG NEET-2022. But last year, the court stated that the relief sought could not be entertained as the dispute related to NEET-22, the petitioner claimed proper compensation for the alleged lapses because of which he missed getting a govt college MBBS seat for medical studies.
Parida was admitted to a UG course in the private Hi-Tech Medical College in Bhubaneswar and was paying an exorbitant sum of Rs 6.5 lakh per year as tuition fees, as against Rs 37,950 per year tuition fees payable in the state govt medical colleges, it was argued on his behalf.
The petitioner claimed that his right to be considered for a govt college’s MBBS seat was infringed. He also alleged that candidates below his rank were allotted MBBS seats in govt colleges based on the AIQ mop-up counselling round and AIQ stray counselling round.
However, the division bench said, “Apparently, there is a disputed question of fact as to whether it was because of the technical glitch that the petitioner could not participate in the AIQ mop-up round of counselling. We are not inclined to enter into such a disputed question of fact in a proceeding under Article 226 of the Constitution for considering the petitioner’s claim for award of compensation,” the bench said, adding, “Resultantly, we do not find any merit in this application, which is dismissed.”
According to the petition, Parida secured an all-India rank of 16,663, a category rank of 7,185 and an all-state rank of 599. AIQ counselling was to be conducted in four online rounds – AIQ round 1, AIQ round 2, AIQ mop-up round and AIQ stray vacancy round. He was unsuccessful in the first and second rounds of counselling.
In the AIQ mop-up counselling round, a technical glitch occurred on the web portal hosted by the Medical Counselling Committee (New Delhi), which prevented him from selecting and locking the desired choices of medical institutes. Consequently, out of a total of 377 available medical institute choices, the petitioner could not lock any choice. As a result, due to non-registration by non-selection and locking of choices in the AIQ mop-up counselling round, he was debarred from participating in the AIQ stray counselling round as well.