After international chess player Sanjana Raghunath was refused an MBBS seat despite being eligible under the sports quota, the Karnataka High Court directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the player. Sanjana, a resident of Bengaluru and a participant in the 2018 Asia Youth Chess Championship, was wrongly placed in the P-5 category of the sports quota instead of the more prestigious P-1 or P-3 in violation of the rules, the player's lawyer said. .
A division bench headed by Chief Justice NV Anjaria and Justice KV Arvind ruled that the misclassification violated sports quota rules.
Sanjana has represented India in several national and international chess competitions, including winning a gold medal in the FIDE Chess Championship. He had filed the petition after being denied a seat under the sports quota.
According to the report of Times of India, Sanjana had participated in many national and international level chess competitions in the year 2018. She participated in the 32nd Under-13 National Chess Championship, Girls Chess Championship 2018, 7th National School Chess Championship 2018, Asian Youth Chess Championship 2018 and Commonwealth Chess Championship 2018. He represented India in the Asian Youth Chess Championship 2018 through All India Chess Federation and also won a medal. Despite scoring a good rank in NEET and applying for admission to government MBBS seat through sports quota, he was put in PA-5 category whereas he should have been put in P-1 or P-3 category. This is a preference category which is based on sports and tournaments. His rank was 9 in the Provisional Eligibility Test.
Despite submitting memorandums to various authorities, she failed to get admission to a government MBBS seat through the sports quota and, in despair, approached the High Court. During the hearing, Sanjana got admission in MBBS course under private quota in Saptagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, Bengaluru.
The Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) said it had considered the list of candidates eligible for sports quota provided by the state government and had allotted seats accordingly without playing any role in the preparation of the list. The government claimed that participating in a competition on invitation or winning a medal cannot be considered as representing the state or the country. Sports certificates before June 1, 2018 do not meet the guidelines of the circular dated June 23, 2023. The government argued that revising the eligibility list for MBBS seats would affect eligible candidates who have already taken admission.
