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

Akshita Saxena

31 March 2022 2:25 PM IST

    • 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...

    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.

    The Petitioner's counsel Jai Sahai Endlaw then argued that merely because currently there is lack of objective method to establish the extent of mental illness, is no reason to deny reservation to the Petitioner when the disability certificate itself recognizes that the Mental Illness of the petitioner is temporary. He added that the impugned assessment was made only on account of the aforesaid Regulation, and the said assessment was made on the basis of whether, or not, the petitioner is capable of undertaking the Medical Course.
    The counsel also referred to a Report submitted to the President, Medical Council of India regarding Guidelines for Admissions of Persons with Specified Disabilities to Medical Courses which recognizes that there is need to conduct a review.
    The Court noted that even though the Report was initially prepared in 2019, no review has been undertaken, and no standards for evaluation of the extent of disability have been laid down. Further, it has also not been assessed, as to what extent of disability – mental behaviour, is permissible for a candidate to pursue the Medical Course.

    "It seems that you system is intolerant towards the disabled," the Bench had remarked orally.

    It directed that the petitioner may be subjected to examination by a team of experts to assess whether, or not, he is in a position to undertake the MBBS/ Dental Course.
    "The Director may constitute a Board for evaluation of the petitioner's condition in the light of this order. The report be sent to the Court in a sealed cover on or before the next date of hearing," it ordered.
    Meanwhile, one vacancy shall be kept reserved for the petitioner in the General – PwD Category.
    However, the Court made it clear that this order is by way of an interim order, and shall not create any special equities in favour of any party.
    The matter will now be taken up on April 4.

    Case Title: DT v. National Medical Commission

    Tags
    Delhi High CourtMentally Ill PersonsPersons With Disability
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