"Who knows, someday she may become an excellent doctor," the Supreme Court said on Feb 10 as it came to the rescue of a girl, who was denied admission to an MBBS course due to her language and speech impairment and directed a medical board of PGIMER Chandigarh to examine her.

A bench of a chief justice and two justices directed that the medical board be constituted by the director of PGIMER Chandigarh, including a specialist on language and speech impairment to examine the girl, who is from Haryana.

The bench also directed that a report be filed by the medical board in the court after examining her in a month. The advocate, appearing for the National Medical Commission, suggested that it is not coming in the way of a girl's education in the MBBS course but it would be appropriate if she is examined by a medical board to ascertain, whether she will be able to cope with the course.

He said that admission for this academic year has already been done but she can take admission for next academic year.

The bench then noted, "the petitioner has approached this court that she has been denied admission to MBBS course on the ground that she has speech and language impairment of 55 per cent. Without embarking on legal norms to find a resolution, we accordingly direct that the petitioner be examined by a medical board at PGIMER Chandigarh. The medical boards file its report within a month after examining her."

The advocate, appearing for the girl, said there was no challenge to the Medical Council of India Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997 as amended on February 4, 2019.

The top court issued notice on September 26, last year and sought a response from the Centre and the National Medical Commission on the plea.

The advocate had earlier submitted that the student, despite clearing the NEET examination, is being denied her right to education as she has a speech impairment.

He had said that her disability qualified under the new regulations and that she can be accommodated in the reserved quota.

The bench had then observed that had the petitioner come early, then the court could have exercised its power under Article 142 to protect the girl and her academic year could have been saved.

In her plea, the girl said, "The petitioner, despite being a disabled person and suffering from a disability, dreamt of pursuing MBBS and becoming a doctor. The petitioner was allotted a seat in the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College, Haryana under the Person with disability category through counselling."

The plea said, however, she was declared ineligible after the disability board decided her disability is at 55 per cent. Under the Disability Act, 40 per cent disability is allowed for taking the benefit of the reservation under the Act.