HC directs admission of student with blood disorder to MBBS

"The petitioner (student) is entitled to the relief prayed for. He is granted admission in the MBBS course by respondent no 1 (IP University) in any of the three colleges," Justice Indermeet Kaur said in a recent order.

The three medical colleges under the university are Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, North Delhi Municipal Corporation Medical College and Hindu Rao Hospital and Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Medical College and Hospital.

The court said this was a case of a single candidate who alone was deprived of his right of admission in the PWD category for no fault of his.

It noted that the status of the youth was changed from the general category to PWD on July 16, 2017, and he had participated in the two rounds of counseling on July 24 and August 12.

"The fact that he was under the bonafide impression that his case was being considered favourably after these rounds of counseling was his rightful expectation of the candidate that he was being considered in the PWD category," it noted.

The court said the submission of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University that there was no category of PWD at the time of the second round of counseling was "incorrect" because if the reason was true, then why was the candidate allowed to participate in it.

Thalassaemia, an inherited blood disorder, falls under the category of benchmark disability subsequent to the new Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The new Act has also increased the reservation of persons with disability category from 3 to 5 percent.

The student said in March this year, he had filled in the form for appearing in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, 2017 under the general category conducted at the all-India level and the results were announced on June 23.

However, he came to know later about the new Act and filed an application before the authorities on July 5 to change his category from general to PWD which was accepted, the plea said, adding that his name, however, did not figure in the PWD category list.

The university told the court that though thalassaemia was now recognized as a disability under the new Act, its hands were tied in the absence of a go-ahead from the Medical Council of India (MCI) to treat a thalassaemia patient as being entitled to admission to the MBBS course.

The MCI told the court that timeline laid down by the Supreme Court for admission to MBBS course has to be followed, for which the last date was August 31 and no one can be admitted after that.

It said the university could not admit a person with a disability of thalassaemia as MCI regulations were yet to come into force.