The Telangana High Court has upheld a State policy that awards grace marks in NEET admissions to eligible National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadets holding Certificate 'B', but not Certificate 'A'.

The Court said the distinction reasonably rewards candidates with Certificate B who continued in NCC until Class XII, the stage at which they become eligible to take NEET.

A Division Bench of Justice P. Sam Koshy and Justice Narsing Rao Nandikonda observed:

“Insofar as exclusion of Certificate 'A' holders from being awarded grace marks, what is prima facie appearing is that Certificate 'A' is (as held earlier) provided to students below Class X, and Certificate 'B' is awarded to students who have done Class X + 2. Therefore, Class X + 2 is the minimum qualification required for participating in the NEET examination and therefore the Government decided to provide grace marks for students having Certificate 'B' ... This, in the opinion of this Bench, is in itself a reasonable classification which can be drawn by the policy-makers.”

The petitioner, a minor represented by his father, challenged Clause (iii)(a) of Rule 4 of the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Rules, 2017, as amended by a 2023 Government Order. The provision gives eligible NCC 'B' Certificate holders grace marks amounting to 3% of their NEET score, but provides no corresponding benefit for 'A' Certificate holders.

Senior Advocate B. Mayur Reddy for the petitioner, argued that both groups undertake broadly similar NCC training. Excluding 'A' Certificate holders solely because they earned their certificate at an earlier stage of schooling was discriminatory and violated Article 14, he submitted.

The Government Pleader submitted that an earlier Division Bench had upheld the State's decision to replace the former 1% NCC reservation with grace marks. The State also argued that the choice of incentives for NCC cadets was a policy matter warranting limited judicial interference.

The question before the Court was whether excluding NCC 'A' Certificate holders from the grace marks scheme amounted to an unreasonable classification. The Bench noted that the earlier decision had addressed the shift from reservation to grace marks, while the present petition specifically concerned the exclusion of 'A' Certificate holders.

On that issue, the Court reasoned that an 'A' Certificate is awarded at the school level up to Class X, whereas a 'B' Certificate reflects continued NCC participation through Class XII. The State could choose to incentivise cadets who remained in the NCC until the educational stage required for NEET, it held.

The Bench found no constitutional or legal infirmity in that classification. It dismissed the writ petition, with no order as to costs.

Case Title: Chatla Susheel Kumar v. State of Telangana & Ors.

Case No.: W.P. No. 28320 of 2026

Appearance: Senior Advocate B. Mayur Reddy, representing Mahesh Mamindla, for the petitioner; Government Pleader for Medical and Health for respondent No. 1; T. Sharath for respondent No. 2; Deputy Solicitor General of India N. Bhujanga Rao for respondent No. 3.

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