The bench had said that the person suffering from special learning and autism spectrum disorders cannot be treated so shabbily and quota benefits will be denied as per law (PTI photo)
SC was hearing the petition of Vishal Gupta, who was denied reservation for admission to MBBS course under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act on the grounds that his mental disability was 55%.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the diagnosis of mental illness can no longer be a bar to pursuing an MBBS course and such aspirants may be eligible for quota benefits in the future after “better methods for the assessment of disability” have been devised. The NMC, which regulates medical education in the country, was asked by the top court on May 18 to set up a panel of domain experts to examine a plea for evolving forms of disability assessment of students with mental illnesses, special learning disabilities and autism spectrum. disorder for allotment of quota for admission to MBBS course.
A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the observations of advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, appearing on behalf of an MBBS aspirant, that several countries are not allowing only persons with mental illnesses to pursue medical education follow, but also allow reservations for recordings. The top court allowed Bansal to amend the petition challenging the NMC’s new guidelines on the issue of admission of persons with mental illness in the MBBS course and disallowance of quota to them for the time being on the ground the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act. .
However, the bench acknowledged the fact that the NMC had constituted the domain expert committee and came out with some guidelines after examining the matter. An eight-member expert panel discussed the specific issue of admission to an MBBS course under the Disability Act in the case of special learning disabilities, autistic specified disorders and mental illnesses, the NMC counsel said.
“After careful consideration of the recommendations received from the expert members in… meetings, the Under Graduate Medical Education Board concludes that with respect to mental illness, ‘the diagnosis of mental illness can no longer be a barrier to eligibility for medical treatment’ . education (MBBS) provided that the candidate falls in the merit list in a competitive entrance examination i.e. NEET-UG’,” the NMC said in its report. “Since the benefits of reservation/quota cannot be determined under currently available assessment methods, hence the quoted italic statement in the earlier Disability Notice dated May 13, 2019 – ‘However, the benefit of reservation quota may be considered in the future after developing better methods of assessing disability’ – remains valid,” the council said.
The NMC said such candidates who claim to be suffering from mental illness will be considered under the ‘Non-PwD’ category (outside the Disability Act) for the purpose of taking admission in the MBBS course. Based on the report, the bank said it will consider the issue after four weeks.
The top court was hearing the petition of Vishal Gupta, who was denied reservation for admission to the MBBS course under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, on the ground that his mental disability was 55 percent, which did not make him eligible was eligible for admission to a medical college. If the Certifying Authority declares under the law that a person’s disability is not less than 40 percent, he or she is said to have the “benchmark disability”, and in that condition the candidate cannot take the benefit of a get reservation under the law. recognition.
The bench had said that the person suffering from special learning and autism spectrum disorders cannot be treated so shabbily and quota benefits are denied as per law. “We believe that the aspects raised in these proceedings should be considered by an expert body with domain knowledge.”
“We, therefore, direct the National Medical Commission to treat the petitioner’s complaint in these proceedings as a representation and deal with the complaint at an appropriate level while dealing with the regulations governing university medical education,” the top court ordered on May 18. Gupta said in his petition that his mental illness disability, as per the certificate issued by Lady Hardinge Medical College and Associated Hospitals, was 55 percent and he was discriminated against.
The authorities denied Gupta the opportunity to pursue the medical sciences course as his mental illness rate is over 40 percent and they also did not give him the benefit of quota, which is available to persons with disabilities under the law, for MBBS aspirants like him. was the plea. “It is respectfully submitted that under Section 32 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the respondents are required to provide at least 5% reservation to the persons with benchmark disabilities and in accordance with the same National Medical Commission to provide PwD Quota for the MBBS aspirants with benchmark disabilities,” the report said.
It sought issuance of an order against the Center and others, including the NMC, to allow Gupta, who has standard disability, to pursue the Medical Sciences Course under PwD Quota. “Issue writ/order/direction in the nature of mandamus against respondents and particularly against the National Medical Commission to evolve the modes/methods for assessment of disability of MBBS aspirants with mental illness and treat them as such eligible for PwD quotas,” the report said. .
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
