India Legal Bureau

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2014, which was passed by Parliament just the other day, could face a few hurdles when it assumes its new avatar as an act sometime later.

This bill will have some penal clauses attached to it, which will make it somewhat implementable. However, activists have demanded that the reservations need to be enhanced for the disabled to provide any real relief. They should also have special relaxations and reservations in examinations for government jobs, petitioners said in their PIL to the Supreme Court.

The apex court, though, set this PIL aside on Tuesday, saying that such relaxation and reservations—in this case for the physically challenged categories—are matters that pertain to governments, not the court.

The apex court was looking into two views from the Madras and Delhi High Courts that “increasing the number of attempts for Physically Handicapped candidates belonging to General Category from 4 to 7 with effect from the 2007 Examination and not proportionally increasing the number of attempts for Physically Handicapped candidates belonging to OBC Category from 7 to 10, is discriminatory and arbitrary.”

The Justice Ranjan Gogoi-headed Supreme Court bench set aside the judgement. The court said in its order: “It is not in the domain of the courts to embark upon an inquiry as to whether a particular public policy is wise and acceptable or whether better policy could be evolved.”

Lead Picture: Differently-abled people celebrating World Disability Day at India Gate, New Delhi. Photo: UNI