Admission can't be denied on disability ground if it doesn't come in the way of pursuing studies: SC

NEW DELHI: In a landmark verdict meant to demolish barriers on entry of people with disability in educational institutions , Supreme Court on Tuesday held that quantified disability per se will not disentitle a candidate from being considered for admission in educational institutions and they would be eligible for admission if Disability Assessment Board opines that the disability won't come in the way of pursuing a course of study.

Rules, guiding admission to various professional courses, fix a benchmark of quantified disability and a candidate is barred from admission if the level of disability is above that. Like in the case of speech and language disability, a person with above 40% disability is not entitled to pursue MBBS study as per Graduate Medical Education Regulations.

Allowing a plea of a student with 45% speech and language disability and whose dream to pursue study in medicine was blocked by the regulation despite cracking NEET, a bench of Justices B R Gavai, Aravind Kumar, K V Viswanathan said merely because of the quantification of the disability for speech and language at 40% or above, a candidate does not forfeit his right to stake a claim for admission to course of their choice. The court granted relief to the student after a medical board told SC that his disability would not hamper him to pursue MBBS course.

Penning the verdict for the bench, Justice Viswanathan said that the decision to allow admission or not should be taken on the basis of a report by the Disability Assessment Board which will specify whether the disability of the candidate will or will not come in the way of the candidate pursuing the course in question. The court said that any decision taken by boards which give a negative opinion for the candidate will be amenable to challenge in judicial proceedings.

"We hold that quantified disability per se will not disentitle a candidate with benchmark disability from being considered for admission to educational institutions. The candidate will be eligible, if the Disability Assessment Board opines that notwithstanding the quantified disability the candidate can pursue the course in question," the court said.

It said the Disability Assessment Boards assessing the candidates should positively record whether the disability of the candidate will or will not come in the way of the candidate pursuing the course in question and the Boards should give reasons in the event of coming to the conclusion that the candidate is not eligible for pursuing the course.

Referring to many Indian and international personalities who proved themselves pathbreakers in their field and not bogged down by their disabilities, Justice Viswanathan said in the judgement that there is a need to have inclusive approach to bring differently abled persons to social mainstream and give them opportunity to grow their potential to the fullest and reminded that the world would have been so much the poorer if Homer, Milton, Mozart, Beethoven, Byron and many more would not have been allowed to realise their full potential.

Observing that it is the constitutional goal for the State to make effective provisions for securing the right to education including for the persons with disabilities, the bench said an inclusive attitude will have be taken towards persons with disabilities from all categories furthering the concept of reasonable accommodation recognised in the RPwD Act. "The approach of the Govt, instrumentalities of States, regulatory bodies and for that matter even private sector should be, as to how best can one accommodate and grant the opportunity to the candidates with disability. The approach should not be as to how best to disqualify the candidates and make it difficult for them to pursue and realise their educational goals," it said.

"Before we part, we will do well to recollect that acclaimed Bharatanatyam dancer Sudha Chandran, Arunima Sinha who conquered Mount Everest, prominent sports personality, H Boniface Prabhu, entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla and Dr. Satendra Singh, the founder of ‘Infinite Ability’, are some of the shining daughters and sons from a long and illustrious list of individuals in India who scaled extraordinary heights braving all adversities," the bench said.