2 min readJul 30, 2026 06:05 AM IST First published on: Jul 30, 2026 at 06:05 AM ISTThe National Medical Commission’s (NMC) revised guidelines for admitting persons with disabilities to undergraduate medical courses mark an overdue shift towards making medical education more inclusive. Issued on Monday, the new benchmark stipulates that a candidate’s eligibility for the MBBS course will be based on a functional assessment rather than merely a certificate recording the disability. Designated medical boards will carry out evaluations. The message is significant: Disability, by itself, should not be treated as a disqualification. What matters is whether an aspiring doctor can acquire the competencies necessary to practise medicine, with appropriate support. The guidelines recognise that technology, institutional support and accessible infrastructure play an important role in determining whether disability becomes a barrier.Framed around rigid thresholds and broad categories, the earlier guidelines often functioned less as tools of assessment than as instruments of exclusion. Applicants could be declared ineligible simply because they belonged to a particular disability category or crossed a prescribed threshold, regardless of whether they could complete the MBBS course. The guidelines were challenged several times, including before the Supreme Court, where petitioners argued that blanket exclusions violated the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. Last year, the Court observed that “systemic discrimination against persons with benchmark disabilities should be eliminated”.AdvertisementThe real test of the revised guidelines will lie in their implementation. Functional assessments must not become another source of arbitrary decision-making. Without clear evaluation protocols, similarly placed candidates could receive different outcomes depending on the medical board before which they appear. The NMC should, therefore, develop standards that minimise subjectivity while preserving the flexibility that individual cases require. It should also revisit the SC’s direction that every medical board include doctors with disabilities — a safeguard that will strengthen the credibility of the process. The Commission must view inclusivity not as a compliance exercise prompted by litigation but as an ongoing commitment. The new guidelines should be seen not as the final word but as the foundation of a medical education system that judges aspirant doctors on their abilities, and not by what could hold them back.