Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

HC extends deadline for MBBS fee payment

By A. Subramani

CHENNAI JULY 29. The Madras High Court has extended by a week the last date for candidates selected for MBBS to pay the tuition fee.

Justice A. Kulasekaran, hearing a batch of petitions on awarding of marks for a question in the Physical Sciences paper, extended the deadline from July 31, and then directed the Government to furnish the list of eligible candidates among those who had moved the court for admission.

The origin of the batch of over 72 petitions was a multiplechoice question in the professional courses entrance examination. Though the official web site of the Anna University announced that the correct answer to question number 54 was `D', the university changed its stance on May 20 and said `C' was the correct answer. Consequently, it reduced 0.42 marks to thousands of candidates who opted for the earlier choice.

After the move was challenged, Mr. Justice Kulasekaran appointed an experts committee comprising two IIT professors and another professor from the Presidency College here. In their report, they contended that both `D' and `C' were correct answers.

Faced with a piquant situation, in which the court had to either delete the question itself from the paper or award marks to all those who had marked either of the two choices, it decided to adopt the latter course.

Accordingly, the university awarded marks to all those who opted for `D' or `C', and produced to the court the revised entrance examination mark list of over 60,000 candidates.

Based on the list, the Government was to prepare a new rank list and include eligible candidates from among the writ petitioners for admission to MBBS course.

When the matter came up today, the Advocate-General, N. R. Chandran, said he would file on Friday the revised merit list, along with the names of colleges, to which they were eligible for admission.

According to him, out of more than 70 writ petitioners, only 16 candidates were eligible for medical admission. Even out of those 16, seven had already secured admission to various colleges, leaving only nine to be considered for inclusion.

Meanwhile, 20 more petitioners came before the court, challenging the government move and seeking medical seats.

Mr. Chandran said eligible candidates could be accommodated at least in the all-India quota of medical seats once the final vacancy position became clear in September.

Mr. Justice Kulasekaran, posting the matter for Friday, said he was getting a large number of telegrams from aggrieved parents and students. He asked them not to send such telegrams, addressed to him, anymore.

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