Manipur HC Makes Shija Management-Seat Admission Subject To NEET Aspirant’s Pending Challenge Over Claimed Cybercafe Error

Nishita Laishram (R1) took NEET for the 2026–27 academic year and, after not obtaining a seat in the first two counselling rounds, sought to change her registered seat type from “Government” to “Management,” claiming that the Government option had been selected mistakenly at a cybercafe.

The State rejected her request, and she challenged that decision in a pending writ petition. In an interim application, the Single Judge allowed her to participate in the third counselling round for a Management seat. The State appealed that interim order.

By the time the appeal was heard, the third round had concluded and R1 had participated; another candidate had been admitted to a Management seat at Shija Academy of Health Sciences, subject to the appeal’s outcome.

R1’s counsel indicated that R1 would seek appropriate relief before the Single Judge, including modification of the writ petition’s prayer.

The judgment cites no statute, precedent, or substantive rule governing correction of counselling choices or alteration of seat type.

It left the merits and all related questions open for the Single Judge to decide in the pending writ petition, untrammelled by observations in the interim order; it also made the other candidate’s admission subject to the outcome of that petition.

The Court treated the conclusion of the third counselling round and R1’s participation in it as materially changing the circumstances in which the appeal had been brought.

Since R1 proposed to seek further relief from the Single Judge, the appellate court did not decide whether the seat-type change was permissible or whether the interim order was correct.

Instead, it preserved the parties’ positions: the other candidate’s admission would depend on the writ petition’s outcome, and the Single Judge would determine the matter on its merits without being influenced by the interim-order observations.

It disposed of the writ appeal as closed, directed that the other candidate’s Management-seat admission be subject to the outcome of W.P. (C) No. 722 of 2026, and left all questions open for consideration in that petition or any related application.

The connected miscellaneous case was also closed as otiose, with no order as to costs.