No device for testing my hearing Impairment: MBBS aspirant alleges in High Court

The MBBS aspirant further alleged that SSKM Hospital ridiculed the MCI guideline where it said that all the candidates with a hearing impairment must be examined with an assistive device at the hospitals, which was not performed at the SSKM Hospital due to the unavailability of the device.

Calcutta: In a major relief to a hearing-impaired aspirant, the Calcutta High Court has directed the State Health Department ensure an MBBS seat in the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital for the candidate who was refused a seat under Person with Disability(PwD) quota.

The direction came following a writ petition filed by the MBBS aspirant after being denied a seat under PwD category on the basis of a medical report. He had cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and reportedly secured 42.5 percentile marks.

Thereafter, the candidate was diagnosed with more than 40 per cent disability during his hearing examination at the hospital.

The medical board at IPGMER certified that the candidate's disability was slightly more than 41% and he was unfit to study medicine. The candidate was further told that IPGMER did not have the hearing device to test if his disability went below 40%.

Hence, on the basis of the report by the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), the candidate was denied the MBBS seat.

Consequently, the MBBS aspirant approached the Calcutta High Court and filed a plea stating that the process by which his disability was tested in the SSKM was 'faulty' as there was no relevant assistive device in the hospital to measure the level of his impairment.

As per Medical Council of India (MCI) guideline, a PwD candidate with less than 40% hearing disability when tested with a hearing device can avail of the reservation and seek admission.

Subsequently, the court instructed the senior officials of the state Health Department to secure an admission for the petitioner at the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH), reports Millennium Post,

Commenting on the same, a former teacher of the institute told TOI, “How can MCI even recommend PwD candidates to undergo tests in IPGMER, which does not have the device? This is ridiculous."