New Delhi, Oct 15 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that disability above 40 per cent should not disentitle a candidate from securing admission in a medical course under the PwD category.

A bench, headed by Justice B.R. Gavai, was hearing a plea of a Maharashtra-based medical aspirant having speech and language disability.

In August this year, Sir JJ Group of Hospitals certified that the appellant, who qualified the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET)-UG 2024, has physical disability of 44 per cent and was not eligible to pursue the medical course as per National Medical Commission (NMC) norms. Under the amended Graduate Medical Education Regulations, persons who have 40 per cent or more disability are not eligible for admission to medical courses.

After the Bombay High Court refused to grant any interim relief to the appellant, he moved the Supreme Court for enforcement of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

In an interim order passed on September 2, the apex court directed that the seat to which the appellant would have been entitled, if rendered eligible, be kept vacant. Further, it ordered the constitution of a medical board consisting of one or more specialists to specifically examine whether the speech and language disability of the appellant would come in his way of pursuing the MBBS course.

After the medical board opined in favour of the appellant, the SC ordered him to be admitted against the seat which was kept vacant as per the court's order.

"We are constrained to hold that the Appendix H-1 in the notification of 13.05.2019, issued by the Medical Council of India cannot be interpreted to mean that merely because of the quantification of the disability percentage exceeding the prescribed limits, a person automatically becomes ineligible for the medical course," ruled the 3-judge Bench, also comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan.

The approach of the government, its instrumentalities, regulatory bodies and for that matter even, the private sector should be, as to how best can one accommodate and grant the opportunity to the candidates with a disability, the apex court said. It added that quantified disability per se will not dis-entitle a candidate with benchmark disability from being considered for admission to educational institutions.

Allowing the appeal, the SC said: "We confirm the admission and direct the concerned authorities to treat the admission as a valid admission in the eyes of law."

/IANS