Can a Candidate with 88 percent Muscular Dystrophy Pursue MBBS? Supreme Court Seeks Expert Opinion

New Delhi: While considering the plea by an MBBS aspirant with 88% muscular dystrophy, the Supreme Court recently observed that there were no specific guidelines available to assess disability with assistive devices in terms of the guidelines issued by the Government of India.

Therefore, to ascertain whether the candidate suffering from 88% muscular dystrophy is eligible for the MBBS admission, which was beyond the permissible limit of 80%, the top court bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra have sought an expert opinion in this regard.

The bench referred to a recent Supreme Court judgment in the case of Omkar Ramchandra Gond vs Union of India and Others, where a three-judge bench had referred to Dr. Satendra Singh, the founder of an organisation named Infinite Ability.

Opining that a domain expert from the area would sub-serve the ends of justice of a young student seeking to pursue medical education, the top court bench comprising the CJI requested Dr. Singh to take up the assignment and assist the court on whether notwithstanding the quantified disability, the petitioner could pursue the MBBS degree course. 

For this, the Court requested Dr. Singh to examine the petitioner and have due regard to such assistive devices and their potential to assist the petitioner to fulfill the requirements of the degree course in medicine.

"The report of Dr Satendra Singh may be submitted to this Court by 21 October 2024," the Court order, listing the matter for further hearing on the same day.

Muscular Dystrophies are a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases causing progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time.

Since the petitioner's disability was assessed to be more than the permissible limit of 80%, he was disqualified from pursuing MBBS course. However, challenging this decision he approached the Apex Court and based on the court's order dated 3 October 2024, a five-Member Board of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences submitted a report evaluating the petitioner's disability.

The said report stated, "The candidate was re-assessed with the assistive device (single hand crutch & motorised scooty). There was minimal to no change in most of the components for disability evaluation as per the GOI gazette (March 2024) with these assistive devices. The possibility of wheelchair usage was also explored which might be required for better efficiency in ambulation component in near future. However, there are no clear guidelines available to assess the disability with assistive devices as per the Govt. of India gazette guideline."

"Further it is to be noted that safety, efficiency and agility of movements are needed to independently use the devices and many times some manual support is also required which may not be available to the candidate at all times and may affect the safety of the candidate and the patients during the skills based training provided in the various setups in the labs and hospitals during the MBBS course training. The Board after careful evaluations of all possibilities concurs with the opinion of the previous medical board held at AIIMS Nagpur dated 13.08.2024 that the disability is above 80% even with consideration of assistive devices and also both upper limbs have significant involvement and hence the candidate is ineligible to pursue MBBS course," added the report.

After examining the report, the Apex Court noted that the AIIMS Committee noted that there were no clear guidelines available to assess disability with assistive devices in terms of the guidelines issued by the Government of India.

"We do not find that there is any independent evaluation on: (i) the extent of the functional disability of the petitioner; and (ii) the extent to which the use of assistive devices would have the potential to bring the extent of functional disability within permissible limits in terms of the government notification," noted the Court.

Referring to the Court's order in the case of Omkar Ramchandra Gond, the top court bench further observed,

"We are of the considered view that a domain expert from the area would sub-serve the ends of justice of a young student who seeks to pursue his career in medicine."

Requesting Dr. Singh to assist the Court, the bench ordered, "...we request Dr Satendra Singh of Infinity Ability to take up the assignment which has been entrusted to him by the present order and to assist the Court on whether notwithstanding the quantified disability, the petitioner can pursue the MBBS degree course. In arriving at his evaluation, Dr Satendra Singh is requested to examine the petitioner and to have due regard to such assistive devices and their potential to assist the petitioner to fulfill the requirements of the degree course in medicine." 

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that recently in the case of Omkar Ramchandra Gond, the Supreme Court held that mere existence of a benchmark disability of 40% or above will not disqualify a candidate from being eligible for MBBS admission unless a Disability Assessment Board opines that the candidate's disability will come in the way of pursuing the course in question.

Further, the Apex Court bench of Justices BR Gavai, Aravind Kumar, and KV Viswanathan also observed that the Disability Assessment Boards should specify the reasons for holding that a candidate suffering from benchmark disability is not eligible to pursue the course.

The court further said that the National Medical Commission (NMC) regulations uniformly barring candidates with benchmark disabilities from medical education are overbroad and directed the NMC to revise its regulations adopting a more inclusive approach.

To view the order, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/supreme-court-disability-257466.pdf

Also Read: Mere Existence of Benchmark Disability No Bar for MBBS Admission! Supreme Court tells NMC to revise regulations