Kochi: The Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has decided to extend to differently abled too the same reservation benefits availed by the applicants from Scheduled Caste/Tribe (SC/ST) communities for admission to various courses. The State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities has directed the University to implement the same.

The KAU has become the first university in the country to issue an order concerning the higher education of the differently abled based on the Supreme Court order in this regard.

The KAU issued the order favouring the differently abled based on an order issued by the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities S H Panchapakesan on November 3, 2022.

The order states that the differently abled will get the same concession on qualifying marks and age that the SC/ST applicants get for admission to the PG, Ph D, Diploma, and PG Diploma courses, for which the university directly grants entry.

The State Commissioner for the Differently Abled had intervened on the basis of a petition filed by a student who is a native of Irimbiliyam, Valanchery, in the Malappuram district. She filed the petition as she didn’t get admission to a PG course in the KAU in 2021.

The Commissioner ordered that the admission should be granted based on the order issued by the Supreme Court in a similar case in 2012. He also said that benefits enjoyed by the SC/ST students should also be extended to the said student.

The order was based on the Supreme Court verdict issued in the Delhi Technological University Vs Anamol Bhandari case. The Commissioner observed that when the Supreme Court issued a verdict under Article 141, the same became applicable in all similar cases.