Court says only statutory certifying authority can quantify disability; medical boards may assess functional competency, not re-judge benchmark disability
The Allahabad High Court has ruled that Medical Assessment Boards constituted under the National Medical Commission’s 2026 guidelines cannot reduce the disability percentage already certified by the competent authority under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, while assessing candidates for MBBS admission under the PwBD category.
A Division Bench of Justice Shekhar B. Saraf and Justice Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary allowed three writ petitions filed by NEET-UG 2026 aspirants, holding that once a candidate possesses a valid disability certificate and UDID card showing benchmark disability of 40% or more, the assessment board cannot re-quantify the disability and deny PwBD reservation on that basis.
The petitioners — Shubham Mishra, Saurabh Rana, and Gulfam Ahmad — had each been issued disability certificates by the competent Chief Medical Officers under Sections 56 and 57 of the RPwD Act. Their disabilities were recorded at 45%, 50%, and 40% respectively. However, the NMC-appointed medical boards, while issuing eligibility certificates for MBBS counselling, reduced their disability percentages and declared them ineligible for PwBD reservation, despite finding them functionally capable of pursuing the MBBS course.
The court held that such re-determination was without jurisdiction. It observed that the statutory power to assess and certify disability lies exclusively with the certifying authority under the RPwD Act, and that the NMC guidelines only permit a functional competency assessment to determine whether a candidate can pursue the medical course with or without reasonable accommodation.
Relying on Supreme Court precedents including Omkar Ramchandra Gond, Om Rathod, Anmol, and Vikash Kumar, as well as earlier decisions of the Allahabad High Court in Somya Pal, Shubham Rai, and Maaz Ahmad, the Bench reiterated that disability cannot be judged mechanically by percentage alone. The court stressed that a candidate cannot be declared ineligible merely because of a percentage-based reassessment by a medical board, especially when the original disability certificate remains valid and unchallenged.
The court also rejected the respondents’ argument that the presence of a disability-percentage column in the prescribed eligibility form gave the board power to reassess disability. It said a column in a format cannot override the parent statute or confer jurisdiction that the law does not provide.
Accordingly, the court quashed the findings that the petitioners were “ineligible for PwD reservation” or “ineligible under PwBD category,” while keeping intact the boards’ findings that they were functionally competent to study medicine. The authorities have been directed to treat the petitioners as eligible PwBD candidates for NEET-UG 2026 counselling and consider them for seat allotment according to their PwBD ranks.
The Bench clarified that its ruling does not dilute the requirement of functional competency assessment, but only bars medical boards from re-quantifying disability already certified under the law. It also left it open to the National Medical Commission to issue clarificatory instructions to ensure uniform compliance with this legal position.
Bottom Line:
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act - Medical Assessment Board under NMC guidelines cannot re-quantify disability certified by competent authority under Sections 56 and 57 of the RPwD Act, 2016; its role is confined to functional competency assessment for MBBS admission.
Statutory provision(s): Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 Sections 2(r), 2(y), 56, 57, 58; Constitution of India, Article 14; National Medical Commission Guidelines on Assessment of Persons with Benchmark Disability (PwBD) for Admission to MBBS Course, 2026 Clauses 3.17, 9.1, 12.3(b), 12.4
Shubham Mishra v. Union of India, (Allahabad)(DB)(Lucknow Bench) : Law Finder Doc Id # 2984245
