Delhi High Court Orders Medical Examination Of Candidate With Temporary Mental Illness To Assess If He Can Study MBBS

Update: AIIMS Medical Board assessed current disability of Petitioner to be less than 40%, i.e. mild disability. Accordingly, Petitioner is not entitled to reservation as a person with disability. Petition disposed as infructuous on April 5, 2022.

In relief to a medical aspirant suffering from temporary mental illness, the Delhi High Court has ordered AIIMS to conduct his medical examination and assess whether he is in a position to undertake the MBBS/ Dental Course.

The order was passed by a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla while noting that the regulations issued by the National Medical Commission did not provide any reservation for persons suffering from mental disabilities.

The Petitioner had approached the Court against the certificate of disability issued to him by Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Delhi, making an assessment that his disability is in the range of 40-70% and he is "Not Eligible for admission in Medical/ Dental Courses".

Whereas the Petitioner claimed to be a meritorious student having ranked 256 in the General – PwD category and having secured admission to the B.Sc, Microbiology Course at Delhi University, he submitted that the Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997, enlist Mental Behaviour as one of the Disability Types. The Specified Disability enlisted is Mental Illness and no reservation is provided where the disability is less than 40%.

The Commission justified the same stating that currently there is no objective method to establish presence and extent of mental illness. However, the benefit of reservation/quota may be considered in future after developing better methods of disability assessment.

Case Title: DT v. National Medical Commission