NEET-UG : Tamil Nadu Girl Approaches Supreme Court Over Losing MBBS Seat After Missing Fee Payment Deadline

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on November 19 a challenge to the order of the Madras High Court, which refused to allow medical admission of a candidate who could not complete the fee payment in time. According to the candidate, she could not make the payment due to financial difficulties. 

The Counsel mentioned the need for an urgent hearing in the case before the bench of CJI BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria. He stressed : 

"The urgency is that today the stray counselling is happening, they will occupy the seat, poor girl- 15 lakhs was supposed to be paid, and on the last day, she couldn't." 

He added that the second Saturday of the month was the last day for payment; however, she could not complete the payment online as she didn't have an account in the 7 banks which were facilitating the online payments. 

The CJI agreed to list the matter for the day after tomorrow.  

Initially, a single bench of the Madras High Court granted relief to the girl, directing that she be given admission. Justice Anand Venkatesh noted that the candidate had secured a high score in NEET-UG. However, the next day, a division bench of the High Court set aside the single bench's order.

The student had appeared for the NEET UG 2025 26 exam and obtained a score of 251. She was allotted a seat in Madha Medical College and Research Institute in the third allotment on November 3, 2025. As per the notification, after the publication of the results, the candidates had to download the allotment order and report to the concerned college by November 8, 2025.

The student submitted that they could arrange the fee of Rs. 15,00,000 only on November 8 but since it was a second Saturday, she was not able to make the payment through NEFT or RTGS mode. It was further submitted that though the candidate and her mother tried to get in touch with the college to inform them, there was no response. Meanwhile, since the candidate had not appeared to join the college on November 8, the seat was considered as not occupied and added towards the vacancy that was to be filled during the stray vacancy. She had thus approached the court seeking direction to the respondents to permit her to join the college.

The division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq, while setting aside the order of the single judge, noted that the time scheme specified in the prospectus had to be followed by the candidates. The bench also noted that there may be many students who, like the candidate, could not join the allotted college in time.

Though the court set aside the order of the single judge, it talked to the candidate after pronouncing the order, advising her to take up another course and flourish in life, and not be disheartened that she could not pursue the MBBS course.

Case : Shilpa Suresh v The State of Tamil Nadu and Others