The Delhi High Court has urged the Medical Counselling Committee to ensure that the requirements of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 are observed during the admission process in the future for all medical programmes.

The Medical Counselling Committee, an organisation affiliated with the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, is in charge of allocating seats in government colleges for undergraduate, postgraduate, and super-speciality medical and dental courses based on a candidates NEET exam score.

On May 11, a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad noted that the MCC must ensure that the provisions of the Act of 2016 are followed for admissions in the future as well.

The bench dismissed a public interest petition filed by a candidate, Mr. Ritvik Singh, in 2021 who was dissatisfied with his non-admission to AIIMS despite belonging to the Scheduled Caste-Persons with Disability (SC-PwD) category. In his case, he took the NEET (UG)-2020 Examination and received 631 out of a total of 720 points.

On the other hand, the counsel for AIIMS argued that the statutory requirements contained in the law in question, particularly those concerning reservations, are being implemented and will be followed in the future.

Dismissing the plea, the court noted that as per the categorical undertaking given by the Counsel for the Union of India as well as the Counsel for Respondent No. 5 AIIMS, the statutory provision as contained under the Act of 2016 should be followed.

(Source: https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/delhi-high-court/delhi-high-court-rpwd-act-admissions-medical-counselling-committee-229242 )