Thursday, May 27, 2010

Avoid frivolous lawsuits, ministries advised | iGovernment.in

Dear Friends,

Many ministries are notorious for filing lawsuits, Review Petitions and Appeals despite the Courts ordering as per the provisions of extant legislations, rules and bye-laws. I have pretty curious experience with one Union Ministry of Railways which defies all rules, laws and policies of the Government of India on employing persons with disabilities! They still consider the persons with disabilities as threat and employing them may lead to security issues. And they claim that being a railway responsible for the safety of passengers, they can not risk the life of passengers by employing persons with disabilities! Though there are no studies or scientific evidence to attribute any of the accidents in the Railways till date to the cause of Disability.

I call it a mind set. And we have seen it for over few years now that Railways has been at loggerheads with the Ministry of Social Justice literally pressuring the MSJE with reminder after reminder to consider their request for exempting all posts of railways from the purview of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 which is due for a sea-change in light of the new committee set up to suggest a New Legislation which is more right based.  The ministry of Social Justice has categorically refused for any such exemption however, that doesn't deter the Ministry of Railways.

I am wondering what would the Railways do when they would be confronted with the new disability law, which most of disability rights activists and supporters believe will usher a new era of rights based regime and ensure true inclusion of every personal experiencing disabilities of any kind.

I have few cases which I wanted to discuss, but for the lack of time, like that of one All India Confederation of the Blind is contesting against Railways seeking filling up of backlog of reserved vacanices in all cadres A,B,C and D and the one matter of Mr. Jayanta Khamari - a physically disabled civil engineer who has been serving in CPWD for past decade without any question on his ability, not finding welcome in Railway despite clearing the Engineering Services Exam on his own merit! The matter is still being contested by the Railways through a SLP before the Supreme Court of India despite loosing the matter in the court of Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities & before the Double Bench of Orissa High Court. Even their review petition was dismissed by the Ld High Court, Orissa as being devoid of any merit.

But the Ministry has the audacity to waste public money in frivolous litigation with impunity. Is Govt. of India monitoring how much their ministries wasting by just fighting against each other in the court of laws?

Any RTI will reveal, as to how many cases, writ petitions, PILs are being contested by Railways in different high courts in India merely on implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Act!

I do hope that this is an early reminder and Ministries do take note of these issues of alarming proportions.

regards
SC Vashishth
Advocate-Disability Rights

Avoid frivolous lawsuits, ministries advised iGovernment.in