Exclusion from admission despite valid disability certification violates rights and mandates of reasonable accommodation under disability laws.

JUDGMENT :

NUPUR BHATI, J.

1. An application (No.01/2025), filed by the petitioner for substituting name of respondent No.2-“Union of India through its Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, DGHS, Medical Counselling Committee, Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi-110011” from “Union of India, through its Director General, Directorate General of Health Services, Medical Counselling Committee, Govt. of India, Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi-110011” from the array of party respondents in the writ petition, is allowed for the reasons mentioned therein.

2. The amended cause title, as already filed, is taken on record.

3. By way of present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner challenges the action of respondent No.4 in denying consideration under the ‘PwBD Category’, despite the petitioner possessing a Unique Disability ID issued by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and a Certificate dated 28.07.2025 issued by respondent No.7-Medical Board.

4. Following are the relief(s) sought by the petitioner:-

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a. The record of the case may kindly be called for:

b. The petitioner may kindly be declared eligible for admission in NEET-UG course-PwBD 2025/ MBBS course under the Specially Abled (Girls)/ SAG category after considering certificate dated 28.07.2025 Annex.12 issued by the designated disability certification centre i.e. Lady Hardinge Medical College and Associated Hospital, New Delhi:

c. The respondent counselling board may kindly be directed to include the name of petitioner in the impugned provisional combined revised merit PwD list (Counselling round-1) dated 12.08.2025 Annex.16 as per her merit position and. allot her the govt. seat of MBBS course at SP Medical College, Bikaner forthwith;

d. The impugned order, if any, issued by the respondent counselling board may kindly be summoned from the respondent and same may kindly be quashed and set aside with all consequential to follow;

e. Strict and appropriate action may kindly be taken against the respondent no.5 the Counselling Board for not considering the PwBD certificate dated 28.07.2025 Annex.12 (which makes the petitioner eligible for PWD reservation for admission in the NEET UG-2025-26) issued by competent Govt. Designated Disability Certification Centre as per the guidelines of NMC and the directives issued by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Om Rathore vs DGHS Annex.7.

f. The respondents may kindly be directed to allow the petitioner to participate in. the counseling process and consider her candidature under PwBD category in the first- round counselling and grant her admission under Govt.

Seat quota in the NEET-UG course/ MBBS Course-2025:

g. Any other appropriate order or directions, which this Hon'ble Court deems just and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case, may kindly be also passed; and

h. The petitioner may kindly be allowed the cost of writ petition.

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5. Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner is a person with benchmark disability as defined under Section 2 (r) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (For the sake of brevity “the Act of 2016”). She suffers from Locomotor Disability in the form of a non-functional left thumb, Transverse Deficiency of the right thumb, and Dwarfism, along with low vision due to an artificial left eye. The competent Medical Board of the Government of Rajasthan issued a permanent Disability Certificate (Form-IV) dated 25.05.2023 (Annex.1), certifying her as a person with benchmark disability. It is further averred in the writ petition that under the Pe