NEET UG 2025 Counselling: Bombay HC Cancels Goa’s Sports Quota in Medical Admissions

Making it clear that the state is free to formulate policies to promote sports, the bench stressed that such measures should be incorporated before the admission process begins.

NEET UG 2025

The Bombay High Court has struck down the Goa government's move to implement sports quota for admissions to medical and dental colleges even though the admission process had already begun. The court said it was contrary to the binding rules given in the admission brochure.

A division bench of Justices Bharati H. Dangre and Nivedita P. Mehta passed the order on a plea filed by a NEET aspirant challenging a notice issued by the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) on August 1 calling upon sportspersons to apply for vacant seats under the Children of Freedom Fighters (CFF) category.

A copy of the August 25 order was made available on Tuesday.

The bench said the common admission brochure for 2025-26 is "legally valid and binding on both the authorities and the candidates," and stressed that the essence of the admission process is deadlines.

"Inviting applications under the new category, after the commencement of counselling, without amending the brochure or informing the applicants of the amendments made therein, is tantamount to changing the rules after the commencement of counselling," the court said.

The consultation had mentioned 180 MBBS seats at Goa Medical College, Bambolim, and 50 seats for the five-year BDS course at Goa Dental College.

Senior advocate S.S. Kantak, appearing for the petitioner, had argued that the DTE had published the schedule of counselling for admission to MBBS courses on July 28 and according to it, the first round of counselling was to be held on August 1, but it was rescheduled for August 5.

The petitioner had participated in the first round of counselling for MBBS/BDS held on August 5 and at the end of the first round, the candidate ranked 78th secured the last seat in MBBS in the general category, and the candidate ranked 108th secured the first seat in BDS in the general category, it was said.

There were only two candidates ranked above the petitioner who did not get admission, and this gave him hope that he might get a seat in MBBS or BDS in the general category.

However, the creation of the new sports quota dashed his hopes.

"The government has fixed the cut-off date as August 14, thereby providing an opportunity to eligible meritorious persons to apply for the first time under the sports quota," the petition said.

Kantak argued that the state government's move after the rankings in the merit list had been published and the date for the first session of counselling had been fixed was tantamount to changing the rules of the sport after it has already commenced.

Advocate General Devidas Pangam, representing the government, defended the policy citing the government's executive powers and the Goa Sports Policy 2009.

NEET UG Counselling Here

Sports bodies, including the Goa Football Association and the Fencing Association, intervened in support of the quota, arguing that several states had already adopted similar measures. The bench, in its order, said the cut-off dates for filling of applications had been fixed and the merit list was published on July 30 applying the criteria laid down in the rules.

"If it were the case that the sports quota reservation was already mentioned in the prospectus, we should make it clear that we would not interfere in it as it is up to the state authority to decide in whose favour it would grant reservation, or to which category the seat would be allotted if a candidate from a particular category is not available," the order said.

Making it clear that the state was free to formulate policies to promote sports, the bench stressed that such measures should be implemented before the admission process begins.

"Implementing the quota after the publication of the merit list and during the ongoing counselling adversely affects the fairness and transparency of the admission process," the court said.