Medical boards can’t cut disability percentage of NEET-UG candidates: Delhi High Court

The court added, “The petitioners were considered functionally competent to pursue the course and the profession. However, the Medical Boards held them ineligible for PwBD (Persons with Benchmark Disability) reservation on the ground that their disability, as re-assessed by the Boards, fell below the 40% threshold required for reservation.”

Who decides disability percentage?

Two candidates sought admission to MBBS through the PwBD category and challenged medical assessments that reduced the percentage of disability recorded in their government-issued UDID cards.

Justice Jasmeet Singh noted that the medical assessment certified the candidates as eligible to pursue MBBS.

One of the candidates, Shivam Kumar, an 18-year-old with permanent visual disability, had a UDID card recording 60 per cent disability. His admit card for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Under Graduate (NEET-UG) 2026 recorded his disability as blindness and granted him compensatory time. After that, the medical assessment board at Lady Hardinge Medical College re-assessed his disability at 30 per cent. The board, nevertheless, certified that he is eligible to pursue the MBBS course, is capable of undertaking it, and would not pose a threat to patients.

The Appellate Medical PwBD Assessment Board at Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital concurred with the earlier assessment. By an eligibility certificate, it recorded his disability at 30 per cent and again found him capable of undertaking the course. On the same day, his candidature was shifted from the PwBD category to the General category.

The other candidate, Aashiya, had a permanent locomotor disability of 61 per cent recorded in her UDID card. The Primary Disability Assessment Medical Board re-quantified her disability at 16 per cent and declared her ineligible for PwBD reservation. The Appellate Disability Assessment Board constituted for Delhi upheld the assessment, and she could not participate in the first round of counselling under the PwBD category.

Advocates Sarah, Arpit Bhargava, Sarthak Sharma, Hina Bhargava and Astha Sharma, appearing for the candidates, submitted that the UDID card was the primary document, and the Medical Assessment Board was required only to make a functional assessment and had no power to reassess the percentage of disability.

The counsel representing the National Medical Commission and the state contended that under the Guidelines on Assessment of PwBD for Admission to the MBBS Course, 2026, they were entitled to determine the functional competency of the candidates, and that the reduction in the percentage of disability was made in the course of that exercise.

Court backs disability recorded in UDID

The court noted that the medical assessment board and the appellate board certified the candidates as eligible to pursue the MBBS course, capable of undertaking it, and not a threat to patients.

“These provisions show that the UDID card has primacy. If any of the respondents is aggrieved by the UDID card, the remedy is to appeal against the decision of the certifying authority. It is not open to a Medical Assessment Board to disregard or reduce the recorded percentage at the stage of admission,” it said.

After considering the material on record, the court held that since rounds 1 and 2 of counselling were over, the respondents shall permit the candidates to participate in the third round and the mop-up round, if any, in accordance with their rank and entitlement under the PwBD category, treating their disability as recorded in their respective UDID cards.