High Court Relief: Disabled Candidate allowed to appear in NEET Counselling on provisional basis

Srinagar: Providing relief to a specially-abled candidate, who was declared ineligible to pursue medical course, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has recently directed the authorities to allow the concerned candidate to register and participate in the counselling for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2023.

The petitioner candidate, who wishes to secure admission for the MBBS course, challenged the certificate issued by the Medical Board of Lady Hardinge Medical College and Associated Hospitals, New Delhi on July 13, 2023.

In its certificate, the Medical Board concluded that the candidate was not eligible to pursue the medical course as per the National Medical Council (NMC) norms.

Challenging the certificate, the petitioner sought direction upon the authorities to allow him to register and take part in the counselling so that he becomes able to get admitted to the MBBS course.

The petitioner was assessed with locomotor disability of 55% as his deficiency pertains to his left hand. However, despite this, he participated in the NEET exams and secured the All India Rank of 1380 in the category of Persons With Disability (PWD).

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After the results were declared, the authorities issued the notice dated 05.07.2023 and asked the candidates under the PWD quota for obtaining disability certificate from any of the designated NEET Disability Centres through the online mode.

For this purpose, the petitioner approached Medical Board of Lady Hardinge Medical College and Associated Hospitals and the Board issued a certificate on July 13, 2023.

Om the certificate, the Board certified that the petitioner was suffering from locomotor disability of 55% and further concluded that on the basis of the quantification of Disability, the candidate was ineligible to pursue the medical course.

As per the latest media report by Daily Excelsior, the counsel for the petitioner, Advocate Areeb and Aatir pointed out that it was not within the domain of the Medical Board for expressing an opinion whether or not the petitioner candidate was eligible to pursue the medical course.

Agreeing with the argument, the HC bench directed, "There appears to be a prima facie merit in the submission of the counsel for the petitioner. Accordingly, a case for grant of interim relief at this stage is made out. In view of the facts, it is directed that the respondent-authorities shall permit the petitioner to register and participate in the counseling pursuant to NEET (UG)-2023 under PWD quota on a provisional basis."

Issuing directions to the authorities for registering and permitting the candidate in the counselling on provisional basis, the HC bench of Justice Sanjay further mentioned in the order, “However, this shall be at his own risk and cost and the petitioner shall file an undertaking before the respondents that if the instant writ petition is decided against him, his admission, in case he is admitted to the course, shall stand cancelled automatically."

It should be mentioned that recently the Karnataka High Court also clarified that being an expert body, the Medical Board has the authority only to assess and certify the extent of disability, and it cannot draw conclusions about whether or not a candidate would be eligible to pursue a medical course.

While considering a case where the Medical Board declared a candidate with 50% disability as ineligible to pursue medical courses as per the NMC norms, the Karnataka HC division bench comprising Justices G Narendar and Vijaykumar A Patil observed, "Being an expert body it was merely required to assess and certify the extent of disability, in our opinion the conclusion drawn by the board is wholly unsustainable being illegal and as the board is not the selecting authority the eligibility of a candidate cannot be certified by the board. The board is only required to certify the extent of disability and the eligibility of a candidate is in the hands of the competent authority. In our opinion the board has traversed an area beyond its realms, which in our opinion is impermissible."

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