Supreme Court asks Center to respond to plea by medical aspirant with learning disability

The Supreme Court sought the Center and others to respond to a petition filed by a candidate with a learning disability seeking admission to an MBBS programme on Monday, December 12. According to Section 32 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016, the petitioner has asked for permission to pursue medical education under the Persons with Disabilities Reservation.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the National Medical Commission (NMC), and other entities received notices from a bench made up of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices P S Narasimha and Dipankar Datta, and others, as reported by PTI.

According to attorney Gaurav Kumar Bansal, who appeared on behalf of the petitioner, NMC has prohibited MBBS aspirants with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain) and Specific Learning Disabilities (i.e. dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, auditory processing disorder, language processing disorder and so on) from pursuing a medical degree on the grounds that there is currently no scale available to evaluate their mental illness. 

People with ASD frequently struggle with social contact and communication, and they may also learn or pay attention in various ways. A specific learning disability may manifest as challenges with speaking, listening, reading, writing, understanding concepts, and math, as well as problems with organising and integrating ideas and thinking. The plea citing the NMC said MBBS aspirants having equal to or more than 40% mental illness disability are not eligible for a medical course, stated the PTI report. 

"It is respectfully submitted that as far as Intellectual Disability having Specific Learning Disabilities (Perceptual Disabilities, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia and Development Aphasia) is concerned the stand of National Medical Commission is that currently there is no quantification scale available to assess the severity of SLD, therefore the cut-off of 40 per cent is arbitrary and more evidence is needed," the plea said.