Re-admit partially colour-blind nursing student: Bombay High Court

The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed JJ Hospital to re-admit a second-year male nursing student whose admission it had cancelled recently on the ground that he was partially colour-blind. The HC has also issued a notice to the state medical education department seeking its response to the student’s petition.

The student’s lawyer, Pooja Thorat, had contended during the hearing that there were precedents wherein partially colour-blind students had been allowed to complete the MBBS course in Rajasthan and Delhi.

The student, Ravikant Naik (20), was rusticated by JJ Hospital after a medical test that was conducted on him zeroed in on his partial colour-blindness. The HC also asked JJ Hospital to file a reply explaining its reasons behind the rustication.

A division bench of Justice Shantanu Kemkar and Justice Makrand Karnik was hearing writ petition filed by Naik, which states that he had secured 86.91 per cent in the SSC and 73 per cent in the HSC in the science stream. Naik also secured good marks in the CET examination, which was conducted by the state, to secure admission in the health science course.

Naik them appeared before the Special Medical Board to take a fitness test, which he passed, and the board declared him fit for studying the course and issued him a fitness certificate.

The petition further stated that in the first year Naik had secured 67 per cent and took admission for the second year of the nursing course. However, JJ Hospital conducted a medical fitness examination for all second-year students and on September 9, 2015 a fresh report was issued in which Naik was declared unfit to continue.

In spite of this, JJ Hospital allowed him to attend lectures till February 1, after which it terminated his admission for further studies.

Naik approached Dr Deepak Bhatt, an expert, who found that he was unable to identify only certain shades of light green and didn’t have any problem identifying any other shades of colours. Dr Bhatt requested the college to allow him to study further, which was denied.

Therefore Naik moved the high court in the first week of August and sought direction from the court.