HC relief for physically disabled student seeking MMBS seat

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court intervened to help a 20-year-old person with a disability who was denied an MBBS seat because he mistakenly selected “no” in the persons with disabilities (PwD) column. Additionally, he was turned down by the Grant Government Medical College when he applied for a disability certificate due to the same mistake in his online application.
Noticing that the petitioner, Shahid Akeel Shaikh, came from a rural set-up in Nashik district, the division bench of justice MS Sonak and justice Kamal Khata on Friday directed the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell to confirm his admission to the Government Medical College at Kudal in Sindhudurg district.
Shaikh had appeared for NEET examination and was provisionally allotted a seat for the MMBS course on September 1 in Government Medical College in Kudal in CAP round 1. The seat was allocated to him through PwD – OBC (Persons with Disability) quota. The PwD candidates were also asked to make appointments with government hospitals to get themselves examined to ascertain their disabilities and extent thereof.
According to Shaikh, on August 6, he personally visited the Grant Government Medical College and was given an appointment by the expert panel on August 12 for his medical examination. However, when he visited the medical college on the allotted date, he was turned down by the administrative staff after noticing that he had marked ‘no’ against the column of PwD.
He said that he realised he had made an inadvertent mistake while filling in the online admission form for the CAP round. Eventually, under high court orders, on 11 September 2024, the AIIPMR examined the 20-year-old and issued him a Disability Certification, certifying that he suffered from 40% locomotor disability and was, therefore, eligible for admission to medical or dental courses as per the NMC guidelines.
Though advocate Rui Rodrigues for the CET Cell opposed his plea because the disability certificate was produced after the stipulated date, the bench accepted the Petitioner’s explanation that he was unaware of the error.
The bench said his explanation deserved to be accepted, mainly because “there was no dispute about him being a PwD, and that he had nothing to gain through the evident and inadvertent error” and directed the CET Cell to confirm his admission to the Government Medical College in Kudal.
The court added that if it was not possible to admit him to the MBBS seat allocated to Shaikh, he should be admitted to another government medical college suitable by the CET Cell.