The High Court was hearing a plea by an aspiring medical student who suffered from a locomotor disability.
She had appeared in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2022 for undergraduate admission to medical colleges. She attained the 42nd Rank under the Unreserved Persons with Disabilities (UR-PwD) Category.
However, she was left stranded when a medical examination by the Government Medical College (GMC), Chandigarh found her disability to be 30%. This meant that the petitioner fell short of the 40% threshold prescribed as the benchmark under Section 2(r) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, for availing the PwD seat.
Later, on the orders of the Court, AIIMS was directed to conduct a fresh medical examination. AIIMS also found the petitioner’s disability to be 30%. However, the petitioner argued that the AIIMS medical board only considered the deformity in her middle, ring fingers and metacarpals and left out the index finger.
The petitioner urged that she be allocated one of the vacant seats under the PwD category in the ongoing NEET-UG 2022 cycle.
Source: Barandbench
