LI Network
Published on: 23 September 2023 at 16:21 IST
The Supreme Court has highlighted the importance of comprehensive disability assessments for MBBS admissions within the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) quota.
It ruled that candidates should not be denied admission solely based on a quantitative assessment of their disabilities, emphasizing that assessments must provide clear reasoning regarding how a candidate may be unable to pursue medical courses.
The Court expressed dissatisfaction with the reports submitted by the Medical Board formed by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for assessing the disabilities of two candidates.
These reports primarily focused on quantifying the extent of disability and lacked the necessary detailed evaluation and reasoning to justify why the candidates couldn’t pursue medical courses. Consequently, the Court directed the AIIMS Director to issue a clarificatory note with elaborate reasoning within a week.
A bench comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Aravind Kumar handled writ petitions filed by four candidates seeking MBBS admissions for the 2023-24 academic year under the PwD quota. When the disability assessment panels under the Medical Board of Admission did not clear them, the candidates approached the Court. They sought the implementation of reservations for persons with benchmark disabilities, as mandated by the Right to Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The Court had previously referred the petitioners for examination by an AIIMS expert committee.
The AIIMS committee approved two petitioners but did not endorse the admission of two others under the PwD quota. Concerned about the negative AIIMS committee reports, the Court noted that these reports only quantitatively assessed the extent of disability, lacking detailed reasoning to justify why the candidates were deemed incapable of pursuing medical courses.
The Court directed the AIIMS Director to provide a clarificatory note and elaborate reasoning based on the expert committee’s evaluation. Additionally, it mandated that two seats within the PwD quota should be reserved and not filled until the next hearing.
Furthermore, the Court emphasized that the expert committee should consider recent developments in medical and other sciences when evaluating whether candidates can pursue the courses.