This is not the only case.
According to disability rights activists in the city, many individuals like Sharma face similar hurdles every year. They argue that the process of assessment is not standardised, forcing many candidates with disabilities to undergo multiple assessments each year. As per the National Medical Commission (NMC), candidates who register under the persons with disabilities (PwD) quota for the entrance exam have to obtain a disability certificate from one of the 16 designated NEET disability screening centres.
Last year, when Sharma obtained a score of 548 out of 720 in NEET-UG 2023 as a PwD candidate, he underwent a medical examination at RML Hospital in accordance with the NMC guidelines for medical college admissions. The hospital’s eye department issued a certificate stating his ineligibility for reservation due to perceived 0% vision.
Despite already possessing certificates from JP Hospital in Bhopal, Civil Surgeon Hospital in Bhopal, and AIIMS in New Delhi, confirming his visual impairment. In response, Sharma appealed to the Court of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, which mandated a reassessment at Guru Nanak Eye Centre. Subsequently, he was certified as being 40% disabled.
In another case in 2022, Laxmi Chaudhary was declared ineligible to apply for counselling by Safdarjung Hospital. She too had to fight in Delhi High Court for reassessment, in which AIIMS found her eligible for the reservation in the PwD category. In 2020, Safdarjung similarly ruled Usman ineligible with 100% disability but a reassessment in Chandigarh provided a respite. He is now doing his MBBS course.Disability-rights activists claim that every year, many PwD candidates have to go through unnecessary hassles because of such issues rendering the right to education for people with disabilities more tedious.Calling the regular wrong-certification discriminatory, Dr Satendra Singh, a PwD and disability-rights activist, alleged that the standard guidelines for assessment of candidates were not being followed. This was why many candidates faced such problems every year. Singh added, “To ensure non-discrimination and mitigation of prevalent bias against NEET candidates with disabilities, all disability assessments must be video recorded and the examining board must include a doctor with a disability. Further, NMC must penalise hospitals for any gross deviation found in the Unique Disability ID certification.”
(With TOI inputs)