Kolkata: Mehebub Zahedi (24) from Malda’s Chanchal has cleared NEET UG 2026 and qualified for Bachelor of Dental Surgery, but the lack of a domicile certificate is obstructing her admission to a Chhattisgarh college. She does not have a domicile certificate since her name was deleted in the SIR. Calcutta High Court’s single judge Justice Krishna Rao on Thursday directed the Chanchal SDO to provide her with a “temporary” domicile certificate while directing Zahedi to give an undertaking that if she is not successful before the Appellate Tribunal, she will surrender the certificate.The Appellate Tribunal has been asked to dispose of her case by two weeks.On March 23, Zahedi came to know that her name was deleted in SIR. She filed an appeal on April 2. While she waited for her SIR appeal’s result, she came to know she had cleared NEET UG and was cleared for admission for the academic session 2026-27 at Triveni Institute of Dental Sciences, Hospital and Research Centre in Chhattisgarh.A resident of Panbara village, Zahedi claims to have documents establishing identity, citizenship, age, permanent residence, continuous residence, Aadhaar card, EPIC, birth certificate, board certificate, ration card and PAN card. She also has proof that her father Rejaul’s name appeared in the 2002 voters’ list.The issue in Zahedi’s case, flagged by ECI, was “a mismatch in the name of her father in the 2002 electoral roll and in the current one, and, therefore, the link could not be established”.“The issue of electoral enrolment and the issue of domicile or permanent residence are distinct matters governed by separate legal and administrative requirements…the determination of her domicile or permanent residence has to be made by the authority considering documents like identity, Aadhaar, and other documents…it’s not solely dependent on electoral roll,” the petition in the high court read.
