Aadhaar woes: Delhi HC imposes costs on AIIMS for callous attitude towards MBBS aspirant

A vacation bench of the Delhi High Court has imposed costs of Rs. 50,000 on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for denying an MBBS aspirant permission to write the entrance exam after his Aadhaar card could not be scanned..The order was passed by Justice Prathiba M Singh..The petition was filed in the High Court by a student from Karnataka, who had not been allowed to take the AIIMS entrance examination as the Quick Response (QR) code of his Aadhaar card could not be scanned by staff carrying out verification at an examination centre in Kalaburagi..The student was barred from taking the exam and was told that his Aadhaar card was not genuine. It was later established that the document was indeed genuine..Despite the student’s protests that the card could be verified on the basis of the unique identification number, the staff remained adamant that he would not be allowed entry unless the QR code could be scanned using a mobile phone application that they were using..It was later established that this method of verification had not been uniformly applied, and that several centres had, in fact, granted admission to candidates after a physical verification of documents..The student then fruitlessly wrote to the Assistant Controller of Examinations. Having received no response, he approached the High Court asking for a stay on the publication of the results of the examination – which are to be declared on June 18 – and for the examination to be conducted afresh..When the matter was earlier heard on June 1, Justice Pratibha M Singh had issued notice to AIIMS and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), asking them to file counter affidavits within a week..While UIDAI filed a response confirming that the petitioner’s Aadhaar Card was genuine, AIIMS failed to file a counter affidavit..The Court observed that the callous attitude and lack of co-ordination in conducting the examination had led to a student being deprived of his right. However, the Court also noted that conducting the examination afresh or staying the result would inconvenience thousands of students..It was also observed that the prospectus only mentioned that an aspirant would not be allowed without a valid admit card, a photograph, and an original proof of identification as mentioned in the application. The scanning of the QR code was nowhere mentioned..“The scanning of the QR code by the official at the entry point is not even prescribed as a requirement in the brochure. Thus, the rejection of the Petitioner’s entry to the examination centre is completely untenable.”.Holding that he had been wronged, the Court directed AIIMS to pay the petitioner Rs. 50,000 towards harassment and frustration caused to him..AIIMS was also ordered to give a uniform set of instructions to officials responsible for the conduct of the examination nationwide, and to constitute response teams to deal with contingencies relating to identification of documents, medical conditions, discrepancies in admit cards, discrepancies in question papers and marking of answers..Senior Associate at PSP Legal Akshay Srivastava, Associate at Link Legal Prakhar Deep, and advocate Kaustav Som appeared for the petitioner..Read the order..Read the petition