NEW DELHI: Discarding the decades-old ‘both hands intact’ requirement for aspiring doctors, the Supreme Court on Friday said it “reeks of glorifying ableism” and directed National Medical Commission (NMC) to revise the outdated criteria to enable persons with disabilities (PwD) to pursue MBBS course.
Accepting Dr Satendra Singh’s report favouring admission to a PwD candidate and rejecting the report of a five-member AIIMS medical board declaring him unfit to pursue MBBS course, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan asked NMC to report the progress in revising the eligibility criteria by March 3. Dr Singh, part of the five-member board, had given a separate opinion.
Writing the judgment, Justice Viswanathan said, “The ‘both hands intact’ prescription has no sanctity in law as it does not admit of a functional assessment of the individual candidate, a matter which is so fundamental in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.” Referring to Dr Singh’s report, the bench said it had an interesting reference about how in an age when robotic surgeries are relied upon, the NMC norms still insisted on the ‘both hands intact with intact sensations’ norm.
“A prescription such as ‘both hands intact’ reeks of ableism and has no place in a statutory regulation. In fact, it has the effect of denuding the rights guaranteed under the Constitution and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD Act) and makes a mockery of the principle of reasonable accommodation,” the bench said.
The SC said one should not assume incompetence without providing ample opportunities after ensuring clinical accommodations and assistive technologies.
“In our considered view, the correct approach is the one that Dr Satendra Singh has adopted – to not bar a candidate at the threshold but grant the candidate the choice after completing the MBBS course, to decide whether he wishes to specialise in a non-surgical or medical branch or continue as a general duty medical officer,” the bench said. “In our view, this prescription of ‘both hands intact’ is completely antithetical to Article 41 of the Constitution, the principles enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the salutary provisions of the RPwD Act,” the SC said.
“In our view, this prescription of ‘both hands intact’… propagates that persons with typical abilities and with faculties similar to what majority may have are somehow superior. This is precisely what Directive Principles of State Policy, UN Convention and the RPwD Act abhor,” SC added.