The Delhi High Court adjourned the hearing on a plea of a medical student to January 28. The plea was concerning a certificate that bars the medical student from taking admission in medical courses in the disability category.
The division bench of Chief Justice D.N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh adjourned the hearing to Jan 28 as none of the respondents had appeared for the matter and the counsel from the petitioner’s side had informed the court that there is no reply from the respondents’ side. The court, however, had earlier directed the Centre to file a reply.
The petition was filed by Baibhavi Sharma, she stated that she had a specific disability of ‘Left Congenital Transverse deficiency of elbow’ following which she falls under the persons with disability category (PWD).
Baibhavi Sharma’s counsel consisting of Indrajit Sinha and Mrinal Gopal told the court that the petitioner has passed the senior school certificate exam in 2020 and is observed to be a very good student.
The plea stated that the petitioner had to get a certificate of disability from the designated centre according to the Medical Council of India Gazette dated February 5, 2019, and May 14, 2019, for admission to medical courses in All India Quota.
As per stated the petitioner went to the Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi to fetch the certificate. On November 11th 2020 the Safdarjung Hospital issued a certificate of disability stating that the petitioner suffered from ‘Left Congenital Transverse deficiency of elbow’ with a percentage of 65 per cent.
The plea stated that this comes within the amended general medical admission regulation of 1997 which specifies that it should be between 40-80%. Despite this, the concerned authority in the hospital denied admission to the petitioner in the medical courses per MCI gazette notification.
The petitioner was informed by the college that she should take admission by November 16, 2020, after submitting the required documents. But the petitioner is not able to get admission in the allotted college even after passing the Medical entrance test.
The advocate pleaded in the court to direct the Lady Hardinge Medical college not to give admission to any student in the seat allotted to the petitioner until the petition is pending in the court. It has sought a direction to maintain status quo with respect to the seat allotted to the petition i.e provisional letter round-1 dated Nov 6 during the pendency of the petition.
The petitioner said that according to the amendment on 14 May 2019 to the General Medical Admission Regulation 1997, amendments in guidelines regarding students with “special disabilities” with respect to admission in MBBS were introduced and put to effect. As per that guidelines under the “Locomotive disability” category it is specified that any specific disability with 40-80% will be eligible for the PWD category.
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