Blitz Bureau
THE Supreme Court has held that the eligibility condition prescribed by the National Medical Commission’s guidelines that candidates with disabilities must have “both hands intact, with intact sensation and sufficient strength” for admission to MBBS course was arbitrary and antithetical to the Constitution It called it a glorification of “ableism” that contradicts the principles of reasonable accommodation and inclusivity enshrined in the law.
A Bench of Justices Bhushan R Gavai and KV Viswanathan on February 21 said, “It indicates a classification which is overbroad and glorifies ableism. It propagates that persons with typical abilities and with faculties similar to what the majority may have or somehow superior. This is precisely what the directive principles of state policy, the United Nations Convention and the RPwD (Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Act, abhor.”
The court held that barring a candidate at the threshold solely based on physical disability violates constitutional guarantees and international conventions on the rights of persons with disabilities. The judgment stressed that the NMC stipulation of “both hands intact with intact sensations, sufficient strength and range of motion” unjustly bars individuals with upper limb disabilities from pursuing medical education, despite their capability to perform as competent doctors with reasonable accommodations. The judgment came as the court ruled in favour of an aspiring doctor with a 58 per cent disability, directing his admission to an MBBS course while calling upon NMC to revise its outdated guidelines.
The case concerned a petitioner whose admission to a medical college was denied based on NMC’s 2019 guidelines, which mandate that candidates must have both hands intact, with sufficient strength and range of motion. The petitioner, who secured a high rank in the NEET-UG 2024 exam under the PwD (OBC) category, was deemed ineligible by the disability assessment board despite his ability to perform essential clinical functions.
