New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (October 15) said that the existence of a benchmark disability is not a reason to bar a person from pursuing medical education unless there is a report by the disability assessment board that that candidate is incapacitated from studying the MBBS course.
The disability assessment board will have to examine the disability of the specific candidate to determine the capacity of pursuing the course and mere quantification of the disability will not disbar a candidate, reported LiveLaw.
“Mere existence of benchmark disability will not disqualify a candidate from being eligible for the course. The disability board assessing the disability of the candidate must positively record whether the disability of the candidate will or will not come in the way of the candidate pursuing the course. Disability board should also state reasons in the event it concluding that the candidate is not eligible in pursuing the course,” said a bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Aravind Kumar K.V. Viswanathan.
“Pending creation of appellate bodies, the negative opinion of the disability assessment boards would be amenable to challenge in judicial review proceedings. The Courts seized of the matter should refer the candidate to any premier medical institute having facility for an independent opinion and relief to the candidate would be granted or denied based on the opinion of the said medical institution,” the Court held.
The court made the observations while delivering the detailed judgment in the case pertaining to a petition filed by a candidate with 40-45% speech and language disability seeking MBBS admission. Earlier, a medical board constituted by the court opined that he could pursue medical education.
