After A Student’s Application For An MBBS Seat Was Refused, The Supreme Court Issued A Notice To The Centre And NMC
In response to a petition filed by a student who was refused admission into the MBBS program due to having a severe speech impediment, the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the Center.
The issue was raised on September 26 during the hearing of a petition submitted by 19-year-old Vibhushita Sharma, a resident of Faridabad who this year passed the NEET-UG.
Sharma was given a seat in the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) category at the Kalpana Chawla Medical College in Karnal, Haryana, but was not allowed to enroll because of a February 2019 notification from the regulatory body for medical admissions that declared anyone with a speech disability above 40% ineligible for medical admission. A speech and language handicap of 55% was determined to exist in the petitioner.
After reading the plea, the justices Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud and Hima Kohli became quite upset and asked the Centre and the NMC for comments. The Haryana government and the medical college where she had received the seat were also questioned by the court.
Advocates Gaurav Agarwal and Avneesh Arputham, who are representing the petitioner, told the court that valuable time was lost while she traveled to the Punjab and Haryana high court, where her lawyer had secretly withdrew the case on July 27.
In order to challenge the Board of Governors superseding the Medical Council of India (MCI) notification from February 2019 and the subsequent notification from March 2019, which prevented the petitioner from enrolling in her MBBS course, she filed a new appeal with the Supreme Court.
According to Agrawal, the Right to Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 prohibits granting the 5% reserve to anyone whose disability is not certified at 40% or more. And they state that if I must continue with the course, my disability cannot be greater than 40%.
The petitioner questioned the rationale for the exclusion of those with speech and language impairments from pursuing careers in medicine. Such individuals, it was said, do not have any intellectual or physical disabilities except for their inability to speak, which can be greatly helped by the use of assistance.
Sharma received a place at the Kalpana Chawla government medical college in Karnal under the Persons with Disability (PwD) category after achieving over 86% on her Class 12 board exams and doing well on her first attempt at the NEET-UG. She came before the medical board in March and had already paid the course fees.
She received a 55% disability rating from the Disability Assessment Board in March of this year. According to the petition, the level of disability was determined to remain the same upon re-evaluation by a board that had been reconvened.
The petitioner had made a request to be declared admissible in his or her appearance before the Punjab and Haryana high court. She even argued this point before the department of medical education and research in Haryana.
She did not, however, object to the notices that rendered her ineligible for admission. The petition was withdrawn on May 13 after her legal argument was rejected.
The Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 1997 outline the rules controlling MBBS admission. Speech and language disability was added as a separate impairment when 2016 Right of Persons with Disabilities Act went into effect. Previously, it was combined with hearing disability.
A specialist committee looked at the issue of how the 2016 Act applied to admission to the MBBS program.
Based on this assessment, the former MCI released a notification on February 2 and May 13 of the same year, which is currently being challenged in front of the supreme court.
The matter has been scheduled for October 31 by the bench.
News Mania Desk
