Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): A 19-year-old student from Jabalpur has won a major legal battle in the Supreme Court, bringing him one step closer to his dream of becoming a doctor.
Atharva Chaturvedi, who recently passed Class 12, argued his own case before the top court after he was unable to get an MBBS seat under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota in private colleges in Madhya Pradesh.
According to a news report by NDTV, Atharva had cleared NEET twice and scored 530 marks. Despite qualifying, he could not secure admission under the EWS category because the state had not implemented reservation in private medical colleges. Determined not to give up, he decided to approach the Supreme Court on his own.
Using online resources, Atharva downloaded the Special Leave Petition (SLP) format from the Supreme Court website. He studied earlier judgments and prepared his petition himself. He filed it online on January 6 after correcting technical objections raised by the court registry. To save money, he avoided travelling to Delhi and managed the process from Jabalpur.
The court heard him and later used its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to direct the National Medical Commission and the Madhya Pradesh government to grant provisional MBBS admission to eligible EWS candidates for the 2025–26 session.
The court observed that a qualified student should not suffer due to delay in policy implementation. It ordered that Atharva be given provisional admission within seven days, subject to payment of fees.
Atharva’s father, Manoj Chaturvedi, is a lawyer but had never practised in the Supreme Court. During the Covid lockdown, Atharva learned about court procedures by watching online hearings. His teachers also helped improve his language skills and confidence.
Atharva had also cleared engineering entrance exams and secured a seat at Jabalpur Government Engineering College.
However, he chose medicine because he always wanted to become a doctor.
