A NEET candidate’s UDID card certified his disability at 60 percent, enough for the benchmark-disability quota. The NEET Medical Board then re-examined him and cut it to 32 percent, making him ineligible. The Calcutta High Court held that the Board had no power to do that: once the disability percentage is certified under the disability-rights law and recorded on the UDID, it is final, and the Board may only assess whether the candidate can functionally pursue the MBBS course.
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has held that the percentage of disability certified on a candidate’s Unique Disability ID (UDID) card cannot be reassessed by the NEET Medical Assessment Board or the Appellate Authority while deciding eligibility for reservation under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) category in NEET-UG admissions [Rashid Aktar Hussain v. Union of India and Others].
Justice Amrita Sinha held that the quantum of disability, once assessed and certified by the competent authority under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and reflected in the UDID card, must be treated as final, and that the Medical Assessment Board’s task is to assess the candidate’s functional capability to pursue the MBBS course, not to reassess the percentage of disability.
The case
The petitioner took NEET-UG 2026 under the PwBD category and secured an All India rank of 1936 in that category. He held a UDID card recording his disability at 60 percent, a locomotor disability of the right upper limb, valid until January 2027. When he appeared before the Medical Assessment Board, however, the Board reassessed and reduced his disability, and, on appeal, the Appellate Authority assessed it at 32 percent, below the 40 percent threshold, rendering him ineligible for the benchmark-disability reservation. Notably, the Board and the Appellate Authority had themselves found him functionally competent, recording that he required no assistive support, could complete the MBBS course and posed no risk to patient safety.
He challenged the reassessment, contending that the Board was only empowered to evaluate his functional capability and had no authority to redetermine the quantum of disability already certified, relying on the National Medical Commission guidelines and the Supreme Court’s decision in Om Rathod v. Director General of Health Services.
What the Court held
The Court held that the petitioner’s disability had already been ascertained and certified by the competent authority under the 2016 Act, and that there was hardly any scope for another authority, not prescribed by law, to reassess it. Referring to Section 2(r) of the Act, which defines a “person with benchmark disability” as one with not less than 40 percent of a specified disability as certified by the certifying authority, the Court observed that once the quantum is assessed and the UDID card issued, it cannot be reassessed by an authority the statute does not empower to do so.
A statute, the Court held, must prevail over any guidelines, and there could not be two different criteria for identifying a benchmark disability, one under the Act and another under the NEET guidelines. “It cannot be that a person will fall under PwBD category under the Act and will not fall under the said category in terms of the Guidelines,” the Court observed, reiterating that the quantum of disability is to be assessed only by the authority prescribed under the 2016 Act, while the Medical Assessment Board and Appellate Authority are confined to assessing the candidate’s functionality.
Since the Board had itself found the petitioner functionally competent, the Court held that the conclusion that he was ineligible for PwBD reservation could not be sustained. It set aside that conclusion, directed that the disability percentage recorded on his UDID be treated as final, ordered a fresh eligibility certificate to be issued, and permitted him to participate in the next round of NEET-UG counselling on that basis.
Why it matters
For candidates with disabilities seeking medical admission, the ruling settles a recurring and consequential confusion between two distinct assessments. The percentage of disability, whether a person crosses the 40 percent benchmark, is a matter certified once, by the statutory certifying authority under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, and recorded on the UDID card; that certification governs eligibility for the PwBD quota. The NEET Medical Assessment Board’s function is different and narrower: to check whether the candidate, whatever the certified percentage, is functionally able to pursue and complete the MBBS course. Conflating the two, by letting the Board re-score the percentage, exposes a candidate to being certified disabled enough for the quota by one authority and not disabled enough by another.
The Court’s insistence that the statute prevails over guidelines is the doctrinal core. Where a legislation prescribes who certifies a benchmark disability and how, executive guidelines cannot create a parallel, and potentially conflicting, mechanism; a candidate cannot be a person with a benchmark disability under the Act yet not one under a guideline. The direction that the UDID-recorded percentage be treated as final gives that principle practical effect, and protects candidates from having a settled certification reopened at the admission stage.
The decision also fits a broader judicial trend of protecting the access of persons with disabilities to professional education, exemplified by the Supreme Court’s approach in Om Rathod, which shifted the focus from a mechanical percentage cut-off to whether a candidate can, with reasonable accommodation, actually perform. Here, with the Board itself accepting the petitioner’s functional competence, the only obstacle was an impermissible re-scoring of his certified disability, which the Court removed, allowing a functionally competent candidate to compete for the seat the quota was designed to secure.
Case Title: Rashid Aktar Hussain v. Union of India and Others [WPA 26386 of 2026]
Bench: Justice Amrita Sinha, High Court at Calcutta
Date of Order: September 2026
Status: Petition allowed. Reassessment of the certified disability percentage by the NEET Medical Assessment Board held impermissible; UDID-recorded percentage to be treated as final; fresh eligibility certificate directed and the candidate permitted to join counselling.