Denied a chance to appear for the IIT-JEE exams because he is visually impaired, an 18-year-old who scored 96 percent in his Class 12 CBSE has opted to study at Stanford University in the US.

"I would love to pursue my studies in my country, but the depressing guidelines of IIT-JEE last year have made it impossible for blind students to appear in the JEE (joint entrance exam)," Kartik Sawhney, who scored 479 out of 500 in the Class 12 exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), told IANS.

The Heikapokpi Mission Blind School has been functioning without any assistance from the State government, stated Head Master K Pareng Kom during an inspection visit made by All Tribal Disabled Union Manipur (ATDUM) today. The Head Master further said that the school has a total strength of 116 students from classes Nursery to Class VIII with nine teachers and three non-teaching staffs.

Himachal Pradesh has notified four senior secondary schools in the state as inclusive institutions where the physically challenged will be provided education, Shimla-based public welfare trust Umang Foundation said Tuesday.

"The government has notified four senior secondary schools as inclusive where disabled students will study along with other children. Eight more schools are to be made inclusive schools soon," foundation chairman Ajai Srivastava said in a statement.

Srivastava said the four schools notified are in Shimla, Nagrota Bagwan, Nahan and Jogindernagar towns.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled out any interference in Delhi University’s four-year undergraduate programme.

A vacation bench of Justice BS Chauhan and Justice Dipak Misra, however, said it would pass a direction to ensure all facilities are provided to visually challenged students.“These are policy matters and the court should not interfere in it,” the court said, asking the university to file an affidavit giving details of the facilities it intends to provide to blind students.

KartikSawhney had to wage a battle before being allowed to study science in class XI. The CBSE was not convinced Kartik, who is completely blind, would be able to handle the 'visual inputs' — graphs, diagrams, models — required for science. The doubters got their answer on Monday. Kartik scored a 95% aggregate in science with computers in class XII.