In a significant ruling on medical admission integrity, the Delhi High Court dismissed Dr. Sanchari Ghosh’s petition challenging NBEMS’ cancellation of her FNB Cardiac Electrophysiology fellowship, holding that she misrepresented her eligibility by recording her DrNB passing date as Dec 31, 2024 when she had not even appeared for the qualifying examination by that date. However, the Court imposed a heavier cost of Rs. 10,000 on NBEMS for permitting an ineligible candidate to continue for over nine months despite being aware of the discrepancy, calling the institutional lethargy “callousness” that cannot be countenanced.
The Court held that eligibility for a competitive examination is determined with reference to a particular date prescribed by the competent authority, and a cut-off date will, by its very nature, include some candidates and exclude others, with candidates who do not satisfy the prescribed requirement on that date becoming eligible only in the subsequent examination cycle. The subsequent acquisition of a qualification cannot retrospectively place a candidate within the class of candidates who were eligible for the examination, and accepting such an argument would cease to have any real meaning for the prescribed cut-off and operate unfairly against candidates who adhered to the stipulated requirements.
The Court also held that provisional allotment, verification and the passage of time do not create an indefeasible right in favour of a candidate, and an examining body cannot be estopped from examining eligibility at a later stage when the governing rules expressly reserve the consequence of cancellation upon subsequent detection of ineligibility. The Court further held that a candidate who secures admission by misrepresentation cannot claim equitable relief, and there can be no estoppel against statutory regulations governing admissions to academic institutions.
A Single Judge Bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh observed that the petitioner admittedly did not possess the prescribed feeder qualification of DrNB Cardiology by the stipulated cut-off date of Dec 31, 2024, as her DrNB final examination was conducted only in January 2025 and the provisional pass certificate was issued on May 29, 2025. The expression “likely to be in possession” occurring in Clause 5.1 of the FET-2024 Information Bulletin did not assist the petitioner because she had not even appeared in the DrNB final examination by the cut-off date, and the subsequent issuance of the provisional pass certificate could not retrospectively satisfy the eligibility condition as on Dec 31, 2024.
The Court further noted that the petitioner had misrepresented her eligibility on no fewer than three occasions by entering her “PG Year of Passing” as Dec 31, 2024 in the FET-2024 application form, again during OPJR verification on Oct 13, 2025, and in the Self-Appraisal undertaking affirming that she had qualified the postgraduate medical qualification on or before the prescribed cut-off date. The Court observed that the provisional verification by the hospital and the allotment of a seat did not create a vested right, as Clauses 3.2 and 3.17 of the FET-2024 Information Bulletin expressly contemplated cancellation where ineligibility was detected at a later stage, including after declaration of the FET result or issuance of a pass certificate.
The Court also observed that the petitioner’s reliance on COVID-related delays and the eligibility relaxation extended in the NEET-SS 2024 process was misconceived, as FET and NEET-SS are independent examinations governed by different regulations, eligibility conditions and academic calendars. The Court noted that the petitioner’s explanation that the Dec 18, 2025 email went to her spam folder did not inspire confidence and again reflected misrepresentation.
Briefly, Dr. Sanchari Ghosh, an MD (Medicine), pursued the DrNB Cardiology course at Medica Superspecialty Hospital, Kolkata as part of the 2021-2024 batch and cleared the DrNB final examination in the January 2025 session, with her provisional pass certificate being issued only on May 29, 2025. She appeared in the Fellowship Entrance Test (FET)-2024 conducted by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), secured Rank 14, and was allotted an FNB Cardiac Electrophysiology seat at Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bengaluru in Round-1 counselling held on Aug 14, 2025, joining the course on Aug 18, 2025 and undergoing approximately nine months of specialised training.
During the registration process through the Online Portal for Joining and Registration (OPJR), NBEMS raised deficiencies on Dec 18, 2025 regarding the cut-off date for the postgraduate qualification, which the petitioner claimed went to her spam folder and was noticed only on May 02, 2026. Upon scrutiny of the documents submitted on May 04, 2026, NBEMS took the view that the petitioner did not satisfy the eligibility requirement since her DrNB Cardiology qualification had been obtained only on May 29, 2025, and further noticed that the petitioner had wrongly recorded her date of passing the postgraduate qualification as Dec 31, 2024 in her FET application and OPJR.
After issuing a show cause notice and considering the petitioner’s response, NBEMS cancelled her candidature from the FNB Cardiac Electrophysiology programme by letter dated May 22, 2026, invoking Clause 2.1 of the FNB Counselling Handbook and Clause 5.2 relating to false/fabricated documents and unfair means, solely on the ground that the petitioner had qualified DrNB Cardiology after Dec 31, 2024. The petitioner then approached the Delhi High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution seeking quashing of the cancellation letter and a direction to permit her to continue and complete the fellowship.
