MCI Likely To Permit Colour Blind Students To Seek Admission to MBBS

The Supreme Court bench of justices Dipak Misra and A.M.Khanwilkar, on Monday, asked the Medical Council of India’s counsel, Vikas Singh, to obtain instructions from his client on whether the students, who had secured high ranks despite their colour blindness, could be admitted to M.B.B.S course.

Colour blindness is  a condition in which a person cannot distinguish between certain colours, usually between green and red, and occasionally blue.

The court was hearing a petition filed by two MBBS aspirants, who were declared ineligible for admissions at the stage of counselling in 2015, on the ground that they suffered from partial colour blindness.  The Tripura High Court had dismissed their petition, which contended that there was no regulation framed by the MCI, debarring them from seeking admission.

K.V.Vishwanathan, senior advocate, and Amicus Curiae in the case, had submitted to the Court that denial of admission to students suffering from colour blindness to study medicine would be violation of the Constitutional guarantee of equality.  He also told the court that colour blindness is not a disability under the  Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

Earlier, the Court took into consideration the report of a committee appointed by it earlier, recommending that the current discrimination on the basis of colour vision deficiency must be discontinued.

In March, the court had held that the MCI’s rule preventing colour blind persons from taking up medical studies as “regressive”, and set up the committee, consisting of experts from genetics, ophthalmology, psychiatry and medical education to review the norms regarding Colour Vision Deficiency (CVD) in India and other countries.

The report has concluded that CVD is not an absolute bar, and does not significantly impact one’s ability to practise medicine.  The report suggested that the perceived handicaps resulting from CVD could be easily remedied by a thorough diagnostic assessment and taking the assistance of colleagues with normal colour vision.

The report hinted that India is perhaps the only country where colour blind people are denied admission in medical colleges, as it is not considered a disqualification in U.S., U.K., and other countries.

On Monday, the MCI informed the bench that it had discontinued the screening test for colour blindness for NEET examination, following the report’s recommendation.

The matter has been listed for hearing on September 12.