Tapen Sen, J. - (1.) IN this Writ Petition, the Petitioner, Payel Sarkar, has prayed for the issuance of a Writ of or in the nature of a Writ of Mandamus commanding upon the Respondent No. 3 (INdian INstitute of Hotel Management, through its Principal, Taratalla Road, Kolkata) to admit her as a student on the basis of her selection in the Joint Entrance Examination, 2011. She has also prayed that the Respondent No. 3 should be Ordered to treat her Medical Reports as sufficient Certificates for purposes of being admitted.
(2.) THE Petitioner has stated that she suffers from a learning disability, commonly known as "DYSLEXIA". It appears that the Petitioner was a student of Class " 12 of the Kendriya Vidyalaya at Fort William, but was informed sometime in January, 2010 that she would not be allowed to appear in the All India Senior School Certificate Examination due to shortage of attendance in school. THE mother of the Petitioner made several representations before various authorities including the Principal, the Assistant Commissioner, Regional Office, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan requesting them to allow her to appear in the said examinations after condoning the attendance on medical grounds. It further appears that on or about 21st January, 2010 a letter was handed over to the mother of the Petitioner informing her that since Payel"s attendance was only 59%, she would therefore not be allowed to appear in the said examination. Being aggrieved, the Petitioner moved this Court vide W.P. No. 3956 (W) of 2010 and by a judgment dated 3.3.2010, another Hon"ble Single Judge of this court, Biswanath Samadder, J. came to the conclusion that it was more than clear that Payel may be suffering from a special learning disability. The aforementioned conclusion was based on a perusal of various records including the Report of the Therapist, who had given a conclusion, upon conducting a psycho-educational assessment that Payel"s poor performance could be attributed to " - High level of impulsivity ; - Poor frustration tolerance ; - Inadequate development of study skills ; - Poor sense of responsibility. In the same Assessment Report, the Educational Therapist had also recorded as follows : Organization skill : Adequate Visual reasoning : Adequate Numerical concepts : Adequate Listening comprehension : Adequate Reading : Mildly deficited Written Expression : Poor for Grade X The Hon"ble Single Judge came to the conclusion that Payel may be suffering from "a special learning disability" and that her poor attendance in the School can be attributed to her mental orientation since it was clear from the psychiatric evaluation that she had developed a sort of phobia with the approach of the date of the examinations. In Paragraph 10, the bye-laws of the Board were taken into consideration and special bye-law No. 4 (under Chapter 4) was also considered and it appears that under the said bye-law No. 24, students suffering from the "special learning disability", known as Dyslexia, and students, who were spastic as well as candidates with visual and hearing impairment, had the option of studying only one compulsory language as against two. Reverting to this case however, it is evident that the Petitioner ultimately was allowed to appear and she passed the said examination with good marks. This would be evident from the statement made in Paragraph 10 read with the News Item brought on record at Page 31 of the Writ Petition.
(3.) ON 20th January, 2011, the Petitioner was examined by a Medical Board of the Kolkata Medical College Hospital and according to the opinion of the Board, Payel was suffering from learning disorder and that she needed continuous supervision and support for continuing the academics. This would be evident from Annexure "P-3". ON 17th February, 2011 the Petitioner got herself examined by a clinical Psychologist whose assessment was that Payel was suffering from specific learning disorder " reading disorder and disorder of written expression. Thereafter, on 13th April, 2011 the Petitioner approached the Handicapped Board, but the Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, however, gave an opinion that at present there is no provision to issue Disability Certificate in the case of special learning disorder but however, she is referred to NIMH, Kolkata for opinion regarding provisions of Handicapped Certificate according to the Persons with Disability Act. Thereafter the Petitioner went to the National Institute for mentally Handicapped Regional Centre, Kolkata and registered herself for getting a Disability Certificate. However, the authorities of the said Institute informed her that it was not authorized to issue such a Disability Certificate. In spite of all these, the Petitioner did not lose hope and she appeared in the All India Joint Entrance Examination organized by the National Council for Hotel management and Catering Technology, which was held on 16.4.2011. She appeared as a physically challenged student and when the results came out on 2.5.2011, the Petitioner was found successful. Thereafter, an on-line mock counselling for the selected candidates was held in May, 2011 and the Petitioner was allotted the Indian Institute of Hotel Management, Taratolla Road, Kolkata (Respondent No. 3). She was also asked to report at the Admission Centre on 17.06.2011 between 9.30 to 5.00 P.M. This would be evident from Annexure "P-7".;