Supreme Court notice to Centre, NMC after student denied MBBS seat

Sharma was alloted a seat at the Kalpana Chawla Medical College in Karnal, Haryana, under the Persons with Disability (PwD) category, but was denied admission due to February 2019 notification issued by the regulatory body for medical admissions, which made anyone with speech disability above 40% ineligible for medical admission.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the Centre on a petition filed by a student who was denied admission into the MBBS course for having a superior speech disability.

Supreme Court issued a notice to NMC and the Centre on a petition filed by a student who was denied admission into MBBS course (HT File)

The matter came up on September 26 during a hearing of a petition filed by one Vibhushita Sharma, 19, a resident of Faridabad who passed the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) this year.

Sharma was alloted a seat at the Kalpana Chawla Medical College in Karnal, Haryana, under the Persons with Disability (PwD) category, but was denied admission due to February 2019 notification issued by the regulatory body for medical admissions, which made anyone with speech disability above 40% ineligible for medical admission. The petitioner was assessed with 55% speech and language disability.

“We were very disturbed after reading this petition,” said a bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli while calling for responses from the Centre and the NMC. The Court also a sought response from the Haryana government and the medical college where she had got the seat.

“The poor girl has lost her admission. She has a cleft lip palate. Had she come earlier, we could have passed orders under Article 142 as in a similar case, two months back, we had passed orders granting protection,” said the bench.

Representing the petitioner, advocates Gaurav Agarwal and Avneesh Arputham informed the Court that crucial time was lost as she approached the Punjab and Haryana high court where her lawyer had withdrawn the petition on July 27 without her knowledge.

She filed a fresh petition in the top court challenging the February 2019 notification followed by another notification of March 2019, issued by the Board of Governors superseding the Medical Council of India (MCI), by which the petitioner was disentitled to take up her MBBS course.

Agrawal said, “According to the Right to Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, a person would not get the 5% reservation unless the disability is certified at 40% or above. And here, they say disability cannot be beyond 40% if I have to pursue the course.”

The petitioner questioned why a person with speech and language disability was alone disqualified from pursuing a career in medicine. It was argued that such candidates do not suffer from any intellectual or physical disability, except their inability to communicate by speech, which can be substantially improved with the use of aids.

According to the petition, Sharma scored over 86% in her Class 12 board examinations and on her first attempt at NEET-UG, she secured a good score and was allotted a seat at the Kalpana Chawla government medical college, Karnal, under the Persons with Disability (PwD) category. In March, she appeared before the medical board and had even deposited the fees required for the course.

In March this year, the Disability Assessment Board certified her to be 55% disabled. On re-assessment by a reconstituted board, the quantum of disability was found to be the same, the petition said.

The petitioner had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, with a plea to be declared eligible for admission. She even moved a representation in this regard before Haryana’s medical education and research department.

However, she did not challenge the notifications by which she was declared ineligible for admission. Her representation was dismissed on May 13, following which the petition was withdrawn.

The regulations governing MBBS admission are contained in Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 1997. After 2016 Right of Persons with Disabilities Act came into force, speech and language disability was added as a distinct disability, as earlier it was clubbed with hearing disability.

An expert committee went into the aspect of applicability of disabilities under the 2016 Act concerning admission to MBBS course.

Based on this report, the erstwhile MCI issued a notification, first on February 2, 2019, and subsequently on May 13 the same year, which is now under challenge before the top court.

The bench has posted the matter for October 31.