Madras HC directs health secretary to pay Rs 2 lakh compensation to disabled aspirant for denying MBBS admission
Tamil Nadu: The Madras High Court has directed the health secretary to pay 2 lakh compensation to a physically challenged MBBS aspirant noting that he failed to pursue medical education under the differently-abled quota as the authorities had denied him the opportunity to participate in the counselling.
The petitioner, who lost his three fingers in an accident, approached the high court as despite scoring good marks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and securing a medical certificate dubbing him as fit, his candidature for MBBS admission was not considered by the authorities.
The medical aspirant is a 27-year-old differently-abled man heralding from Madurai and he appeared for her NEET exam in 2018. He scored marks that were above the cut-off marks set for the differently-abled quota. The petitioner stated that he lost his three fingers including his thumb after meeting an accident in 2008.
In his petition, he submitted that he was declared fit to be considered under the differently-abled quota and he also received his disability certificate from the Regional Medical Board of Chennai. The petitioner alleged that despite following all the necessary prerequisites for participating in the counselling for MBBS admission under the differently-abled quota, he was not given the chance to appear in counselling.
He at first submitted a letter to the Director of Medical Education (DME) airing his grievances; however, when he did not receive any proper response, he approached the High court.
Times of India reports that the counsel for the respondents argued that his fitness certificate can only be valid for 2018 hence the court directed him to get himself medically tested again in 2019.
The second test also confirmed that he was medically fit but again he was not called for counselling in that year too. As a reason for not calling him, the authorities stated that he appeared for the NEET exam in 2018, hence his candidature cannot be accepted in 2019.
After that, the petitioner again filed a writ petition in 2019 submitting that the delay in his admission process was due to the mistakes of the authority's and eventually he had to miss the counselling in 2019 so his candidature should be accepted.
After a two-year-long battle, the court finally directed the health secretary to pay the petitioner a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh to the petitioner, reports TOI. Justice GR Swaminathan in an order stated,
" Since the respondents had unfairly denied admission to the petitioner during the academic year 2018-19, the petitioner was constrained to move the court thrice. The petitioner may utilize this amount of payment of the coaching fee and I can only wish him good luck in his attempt to make it in the next academic year."
The MBBS aspirant has expressed his happiness over the judgement of the court and stated that he is glad that at least some kind of relief was granted to him by the court after the 2 year-long battle. He requested the authorities to ensure that differently-abled candidates should not get discriminated against in any way.
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