Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh high court, in a recent judgement, directed NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) to pay a compensation of 7 lakh besides 25,000 towards cost of litigation to a student who lost the opportunity to pursue a career in medicine due to the actions of the university.
As accommodating the petitioner in a medicine course is not possible after two academic years, it would be appropriate to compensate her for her loss by awarding damages, said the high court.
Revuru Venkata Asritha from Nellore moved the high court after she was not allotted a medicine seat under the NCC female open category, despite having better merit in both NCC and NEET 2022 than the student to whom the seat was allotted in Narayana medical college. Responding to the petition, the NTRUHS registrar filed an affidavit stating that one Jakkula Jahnavi, who belonged to BC-D under the same category, was allotted a seat in the first round of counselling. However, in the second round, she moved to SV University, and the university had to fill the vacant seat with another BC-D candidate.
G Priyanka, counsel for Asritha, contended that Jahnavi secured a seat at Santharam medical college in Nandyal in the first round and moved to SV College in the second round. She was never allotted a seat in Narayana college. If she was not allotted the seat in Narayana college, it should have been given to the petitioner, she argued.
Considering the arguments, the high court asked NTRUHS to produce relevant documents of the allotment of seat to Jahnavi in Narayana college. When despite several adjournments the university did not produce the required documents, the high court bench, headed by Chief Justice Dheeraj Singh Thakur and Justice R Raghunandan Rao, held that due to the actions of NTRUHS, Asritha lost the opportunity to pursue medicine, and it would be appropriate to compensate the petitioner.
