Monday, June 29, 2015

UPSC discriminates against disabled in Civil Services Exam - PIL

HC notice on PIL on quota for disabled in civil services exam
Last Updated: Saturday, June 20, 2015 - 00:58

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today sought response of the Centre and UPSC on a plea by an organisation for disabled persons seeking quashing of the civil services exam notification alleging non-implementation of statutory three per cent quota for handicapped persons.

A bench of justices Mukta Gupta and P S Teji issued notice to the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and sought their reply by July 15 on the plea by Sambhavana which has alleged non-compliance of high court's orders.

Sambhavana has claimed that as per the examination notice, approximately 1129 vacancies are expected to be filled, out of which only five vacancies have been reserved for candidates with visual impairment, whereas the Supreme Court in 2013 had held that three per cent reservation on total number of vacancies in the cadre strength have to be reserved against candidates with disabilities.

In its PIL filed through advocates Pankaj Sinha and Nupur Grover, Sambhavana has alleged "blatant disregard" on the part of the central government and UPSC for neither following high court's orders nor complying with provisions of the Persons With Disabilities (PWD) Act.

"The examination is also being conducted in contravention of the guidelines for conducting written examination for Persons with Disabilities notified by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment which have also been held to be mandatorily followed in various judgements passed by this court," the petition has said.

Besides not implementing the quota, it has said UPSC also did not adopt the exam writing policy for disabled on the basis of guidelines of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD).

It has claimed that due to non-implementation of the high court's directions, disabled aspirants are unable to give exams in an accessible environment.

The organisation has said that as per the PWD Act, it is the statutory obligation of the government to "appoint not less than three per cent vacancies for the persons or class of persons with disabilities".

"This implies that the minimum level of representation of persons with disabilities deals with the distribution of this three per cent among the three categories of disabilities namely, blind and low vision, hearing impairment, locomotor disabled or cerebral palsy and hence, one per cent of seats should be reserved for each of the said categories," it has said.

"It is pertinent to note that in the impugned examination notice, the three per cent reservation has not been adequately meted out by Respondent No. 2 (UPSC) and hence, discrimination on the basis of blindness has been clearly shown," the plea has said.

The petition has sought equal bifurcation of the vacancies amongst the three categories as well as directions to the government and UPSC to implement the executive order of Department of Disability Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, with respect to "uniform guidelines for scribes for persons with disabilities."

It has also sought "filling up of all backlog vacancies of persons with disabilities arising since 1996 till date".  

PTI/ Zee News



Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Kerala High Court: Non-consideration of VH candidate by Kannur University illegal

Terming the non-consideration of VH candidate and appointment of another candidate on the post reserved for persons with Disabilities as illegal, High Court has directed the Kannur University to appoint the visually impaired petitioner within two months.


HC to the aid of visually challenged woman

KOCHI, June 9, 2015
K.S. SUDHI

The High Court of Kerala has come to the support of Prasannakumari, a visually challenged woman from Chottanikkara, who appeared for an interview to a post of lecturer in law reserved for disabled persons in Kannur University.

Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar of the High Court ordered Kannur University to consider the suitability of Ms. Prasannakumari “for the post notified by treating her as a candidate who has the necessary age qualification for the post and is otherwise eligible for the post.”

The court also ordered the university to complete the aforesaid exercise within two months.

In her writ petition, the 40-year-old woman stated that she applied for the post of lecturer in law, reserved for the physically challenged, in 2008 and appeared for the interview on October 5, 2011.

Later, she received information that another woman had been appointed to the post.

The petitioner approached the court to quash the appointment and direct the university to consider her for the post.

Allowing the petition, the court held that the “action of the university in not considering the suitability of the petitioner for the post of lecturer in law, under the quota earmarked for the physically challenged candidates, is clearly illegal.”

The court also declared illegal the appointment of another candidate to the post that was intended for physically challenged candidates, consequent to a finding that no such candidate was available.

The appointment of another candidate as the lecture in law was also annulled by the court.

Source:  The Hindu 

Monday, June 8, 2015

Committee of Judges decide a VH can not be a Judge in Tamil Nadu

What can be more sad than this case wherein the judiciary has decided among themselves and advised the State Government that Visually impaired can not be function as a Judge! We have had many progressive judgements from Chennai High Court, but this one is pretty unreasonable. I am hopeful, this is challenged before the double bench soon.

Here is this story from Tamil Nadu appearing in Times of India.

Partial blindness shatters man’s judge dreams
A Subramani,TNN | Jun 8, 2015, 01.06 AM IST


CHENNAI: A person suffering from 70% blindness has failed to secure the post of a civil judge despite clearing the written examination and viva voce, as the Madras high court ruled that visual disability of more than the maximum permissible limit of 50% cannot be allowed for civil judges.

Dismissing the writ petition of the aspirant V Surendra Mohan, Justice V Ramasubramanian said, "Taking into account the nature of duties to be performed by the civil judge, the government, in consultation with the high court, had proposed to restrict the applicability of the benefit of reservation only to those whose disability ranges from 40-50%. If a person has not less than 40% blindness, he becomes eligible for the benefit of reservation. This fundamental and essential feature of the reservation is not taken away by the proposed amendment. The proposed amendment, while not depriving the benefit of reservation to those who come within the definition of the expression 'person with disability', restricts it to those whose percentage of disability, is 50% less. This cannot be termed as nullifying the effect of the statute."

Surendra Mohan, a partially blind person with the percentage of disability at 70%, applied for civil judge post, and passed the written examination. Since he was not included in the list of candidates short-listed for viva voce, he filed the present writ petition for inclusion in the interview list.

The court first allowed him to participate in the interview and said the result would be kept in a sealed envelope. But later it passed orders in favour of declaring the result, in purview of a different case. Surendra Mohan secured 178 marks out of 400 in written examination, and 38.25 marks out of 60 in viva voce, it was revealed.

A difficulty arose because a government order dated August 8, 2014, had made it clear that the benefit of reservation for the physically challenged is available only to those blind and deaf candidates whose percentage of disability is 40-50%.

S Vijay Narayan, senior counsel for Surendra Mohan, then assailed the provision saying it sought to dilute the benefits available to disabled people. Rejecting the submissions, Justice Ramasubramanian further said it was too late to challenge the selection, because, "a person, who participates in a process of selection, cannot later turn around and question the prescription contained in the very notification for recruitment."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Partial-blindness-shatters-mans-judge-dreams/articleshow/47578609.cms

Monday, May 4, 2015

Madras HC asks for all GOs by Tamil Nadu on disability reservation for judicial scrutiny

Govt orders on disabled quota under HC scrutiny
TNN | May 3, 2015, 12.42AM IST

CHENNAI: All government orders in Tamil Nadu allowing or disallowing disabled persons from applying for certain posts in government services have come under judicial scrutiny, with the Madras high court making it clear that it would go through all such orders and circulars to ascertain possible anomalies and discriminations.

A directive to this effect was issued on Friday by the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam while dealing with a PIL challenging exclusion of all disabled persons, except those with orthopaedic disability, from the post of village administrative officer (VAO).

The matter relates to Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) notification to recruit VAOs. Since there was no mention about the quota for visually impaired persons, a federation for visually disabled persons challenged the legality of the employment notification. After being directed by the court to spell out its stand, the government filed a report agreeing that there should not be any blanket ban on visual or hearing impaired persons from applying for the jobs.

"In view of the question posed by this court, the report, in fact, agrees that there should not be a blanket exemption of persons with blindness and low vision or hearing impairment from reservation to the post of VAO or for that matter any post without considering the percentage of disability and level of functionality," the bench said.

The bench then felt there is a need to reconsider the notification, and added: "A person with disability has potential to enhance his skill either by using technology or training through rehabilitation process. It is stated that in respect of VAO a person with 40% visual impairment can discharge the functions after acquiring certain skills."

It then asked the government to take corrective action by issuing fresh GOs in supersession of the earlier orders, and suggested that it hand over a compilation of all the past and existing GOs in for judicial scrutiny. The matter was then adjourned to June 3 for further hearing.

Source: Times of India 

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

SC issues notices on PIL challenging meagre Disability Allowance

Hon'ble Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre and Govt. of Odisha on a PIL challenging the meagre monthly disability allowance given to the disabled which is not sufficient to even maintain a person for two days. Here is the news coverage from Times of India

SC takes up petition on disability allowance
Amit Anand Choudhury,TNN | Mar 31, 2015, 04.40 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Is Rs 300 monthly allowance given by government sufficient enough for a totally disabled person to live a decent life? 

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea of a 27-year old physically disabled woman from Odisha who pleaded that the meagre amount provided by state government is not enough and government should frame a policy for providing adequate financial assistance to people like her. 

A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and R K Agrawal issued notice to Centre and Odisha government on a PIL filed by Surati who is suffering from a rare phocomelia disease due to which there was uneven growth of her limbs leaving her 100% disabled. The court asked them to file response on her PIL. 

Surati, daughter of a plumber who is working in National Heart Institute in Delhi, filed the petition through advocate Prachiti Deshpande. 

Deshpande told the bench that Surati is totally disabled since her birth and she is not able to maintain herself on the disability allowances provided by the government. The advocate contended that the family could not afford artificial limbs for her and the court should intervene in the issue. 

Surati has only 30% upper portion of right arms whereas her left hand is totally deformed. She has only two fingers which are joined permanently. Her left leg is normal but her right leg is short with no knee joint. 

"It is the prime duty of governments to protect the health and interests of weaker section of society particularly the persons suffering for severe permanent disablement and remain sick. She has not been able to live on her own accord due to the permanent disability and the obligation lies on the part of government to do the needful," she said in her petition. 

She contended that her parents are finding themselves unable to maintain her as her father is the sole earning member in the family of five people.