In India, Bombay High Court tells government to clarify stance on disabled students in professional and health science courses

From The Times of India:

MUMBAI, India -- The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to clarify its stand on allowing visually challenged and other disabled students from pursuing professional and health science courses.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a 17-year-old visually challenged Ruparel College student who is seeking admission to the physiotherapy course at G S Medical College attached to KEM Hospital. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S C Dharmadhikari has sought the information from the government by August 2.

The judges have also asked the authorities to allow the student, Kritika Purohit, to attend lectures, even as the bench asked the Directorate of Medical Education and Research to keep one seat vacant.

Kritika's lawyers, Jamshed Mistry and Kanchan Pamnani, informed the court that she had cleared the MH-CET (Maharasthra common entrance test) and medical tests and was ranked third in the physically challenged category. The government sought a year's time to make arrangements for visually challenged candidates to take the course.

The court has asked the petitioner's lawyers to make state disability commissioner, G S Medical College and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, parties in the case.

Kritika, one of the first visually challenged students to get admitted to the HSC, science stream, in the state, after scoring 82% in her SSC examinations, moved the High Court when she was barred from appearing for the MH-CET examinations.

The High Court intervened to allow her to appear for the exams.

The state pointed to the Medical Council of India rules, which specify that only a disabled person with a locomotive disability of the lower limb (50% to 70%) could apply for MBBS courses.

According to Kritika's lawyers, the state has not applied its mind on whether visually challenged students can pursue other health science and paramedical courses such as physiotherapy, which do not involve invasive surgical procedures.

The Persons With Disabilities Act makes it mandatory for 3% reservation for disabled persons in college admissions. Students who are visually challenged, though, are unable to get admissions to several courses, her lawyers have claimed.