girl student from the Capital has moved the Delhi High Court challenging denial of admission to MBBS course by Pune’s Armed Forces Medical College(AFMC) to her on medical grounds.

On the plea by Vidushi Gupta for the court’s directions to the Centre and the AFMC for consideration of her candidature for admission, Justice G S Sistani issued notices to the medicalcollege, the Directorate General Health Services (DGHS) and the Medical Council of India (MCI). The court asked them to file their replies by August 8 and also directed the college to keep a seat vaccant for her till disposal of the matter.

Having regard to the fact that petitioner is otherwise eligible for the seat and the respondent, having granted provisional admission to her, will not fill up till the next date of hearing the one last seat, which is stated to be lying vacant/available as of today,” said Justice Sistani. Gupta, who claimed to have qualified in the merit list for admission against the vacant seats for the academic year 2012-13, was disqualified by the college on the ground of medical unfitness as a mass was found in her ovary during medical examination.

Her counsel Ashok Aggarwal submitted before the court that the act of college is illegal, unjustified, arbitrary, discriminatory, punitive, unconstitutional and violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Indian Constitution. The lawyer said the prospectus for the MBBS Entrance Examination, 2012 has failed to mention ‘medical unfitness” as a ground for disqualification.

In her petition, Gupta said the mass which is inactive could be removed by a minor surgery and her father’s request to college to provide 2 weeks’ time to remove the mass was also arbitrarily denied. “The mass in the left ovary is merely a dormant minor cyst which would not affect the healthy life of the petitioner in any manner whatsoever and therefore, the college was not justified in rejecting the candidature of the petitioner,” her lawyer argued. The court slated the matter for next hearing on August 8.