The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to reserve three per cent of seats in government medical institutions for the disabled. This direction follows a petition by J. Rajkumar, a post polio paralysis hit student who was denied an MBBS seat despite his getting fifth rank under the disabled category.

Directing the authorities to provide the seat in the medical college to the petitioner, Justice E. Padmanabhan observed, "In respect of the other disabled persons, if any, this court is not issuing any direction for the current year but makes it clear that in future the government shall implement Section 39 of the Person with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act ,1995, for all institutions by issuing necessary instruction before March 31,2003.

Justice Padmanabhan has also stipulated that the authorities fill seats under other categories such as the SC/ST and BC quota only after completing admissions under the three per cent earmarked for the handicapped students.

Though the Act provided for three per cent reservation to the disabled candidates, the petitioner contended that the state government had violated the statutory provisions by providing only three medical seats but had the three per cent quota been followed 39 medical seats would have been earmarked for disabled students out of 1255 seats in the 11 government medical colleges.

Justice Padmanabhan said of the petitioner, "He is entitled and eligible to be admitted to I MBBS, and I direct the respondent officials to allot him a seat within two weeks." The respondent included the Director of Medical Education.