Recently, in the case of Vikash Kumar vs Union Public Service Commission, the Honorable Supreme Court spoke about the role and value of reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. In relevant part, the Court stated as follows: “35 The principle of reasonable accommodation captures the positive obligation of the State and private parties to provide additional support to persons with disabilities to facilitate their full and effective participation in society. … The concept of reasonable…
Category: Case Review
Reservation for PwDs extends to Promotion – Says Supreme Court
Posted in Accessibility, Case Review, and Disability Support
In a case decided in January, 2020, the Supreme Court held that reservations provided under the 1995 PwD Act extend to promotions as well. Question which arose in this case was whether persons, governed under “The persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995” (PwD Act), can be given reservation in promotion. The Court answered the question in the affirmative. While doing so it cited Indra Sawhney, Rajeev Kumar and…
Persons with Blindness can’t be Judges – Says Supreme Court
Posted in Case Review, Disability Support, and Employement
In this case, the Supreme Court had to address the validity of rules and orders that limited appointment of civil judges and district judges to persons with partial blindness (between 40-50 percent of blindness). In the case, a person with seventy (70) percent blindness was denied appointment as a judge because he was more than fifty (50) percent blind, the specified outer limit. Surprisingly, the Supreme Court came to the conclusion in the case that…
Discriminatory Law relating to persons with Leprosy struck down
Posted in Case Review, Disability Support, and Employement
Case Title: Pankaj Sinha Vs. Union of India (UOI) and Ors., MANU/SC/0986/2018 The Supreme Court in this recent judgment, issued directions to the Centre and State governments towards rights of people with Leprosy, including the repeal of archaic and discriminatory laws that categorise leprosy as non-curable and contagious, and the framing of rules for evaluation of disabilities by leprosy affected persons, awareness campaigns for general public, free of cost and in stock medicines in PHC’s…
Case Title: Jeeja Ghosh and Ors. Vs. Union of India (UOI) and Ors., MANU/SC/0574/2016 In this 2016 case, petitioner activist Jeeja Ghosh was forced to deboard a Spicejet flight due to her cerebral palsy, when she was on her way to attend a disability rights conference. The Supreme Court ruled in her favour as the conduct of the airlines was against basic rights of human dignity enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution, contrary to…