New Delhi: Issuing notice to the Union Health Ministry and National Medical Commission (NMC), the Supreme Court has recently given its permission to a PG medical aspirant with 100 per cent visual impairment to appear in the counselling process for admission to MD psychiatry.
Clarifying that a seat in the MD Psychiatry course in a Mumbai based medical college shall not be distributed, the top court bench comprising D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant observed, "Issue notice... Pending further orders, the provisional allotment of a seat to the petitioner in the MD Psychiatry course at Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai, shall not be disturbed to his detriment and the petitioner would be permitted to participate in the ongoing process of counselling."
The top court order came on a special leave petition filed by Iyer Seetharaman Venugopalan challenging the Bombay High Court order passed on February 2, which declined to entertain the petitioner's interim prayer to permit him to participate in the counselling process of NEET for postgraduate medical courses, adds PTI.
Also Read: Can a person with low vision pursue MBBS? SC to Decide
The petitioner, a young MBBS doctor, was declared ineligible for the post-graduate medical course by the Disability Assessment Board due to his disability -- 100 per cent impaired vision in both eyes -- due to which he was denied admission in the course.
The petitioner, who cleared the NEET-PG entrance exam, challenged the decision of the Board in the Bombay High Court along with a challenge to the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations (Amendment) 2019.
These regulations mention that persons with low vision above 40 per cent can be allowed under disability quota subject to condition that visual disability is brought to a level less than benchmark disability of 40 per cent with advanced low vision aids.
The petitioner claimed these regulations violated fundamental rights, and they are not backed by any expert input and that it does not consider functional abilities on a case to case basis in respect of each discipline or medical field.
Senior advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan, assisted by a team of advocates from Karanjawala and Co., appeared for the petitioner.
To read the top court order, click on the link below.
https://.in/pdf_upload/supreme-court-100-percent-visual-impairment-170893.pdf
Also Read: Bombay HC dismisses plea by PwD candidate, denies interfering in Physical eligibility Criteria for MBBS admissions