Court: Supreme Court of India
Bench: Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha
Case Title: Seema Girija And Anr. v. UoI And Ors.
Case No.: Writ Petition (Civil) Diary No(s). 29329/2021
Date of Order: 13 Jan 2023
Brief:
"Petitioner has highlighted that diverse provisions of RPwD Act 2016 haven't been implemented by the States. Petitioners have placed on the record a copy of the fifth meeting of the Central advisory board of disability held on 24 June 2022 under the auspices of the Ministry of social Justice and Empowerment.. The minutes of the meeting indicate that as of the date of the meeting -
1. Only 10 states had constituted separate departments for dealing with entitlements of persons dealing with disabilities;2. Only 12 states have independent commissioners;3. The States of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, and Ladakh are yet to notify rules under the statute. They have not constituted the state advisory boards.
The petitioner also submitted that Section 72 of the act which envisaged a District level Committee for each State for the purpose of ensuring that the needs of persons with disabilities are met was yet to be fully implemented. Further, though Section 101(2)(a) empowers the State governments to frame rules regarding the functions of the district level committees, without the formulation of specific rules, the committees would remain ineffective."
Accordingly, the bench issued the following direction –
"We direct that notice shall be issued to Union of India and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The Ministry shall file counter affidavit within a period of a month. The affidavit shall indicate state wise the implementation. Union of India shall convene a meeting with all concerned states and state advisory boards with a view to eliciting the present status of compliance. We request Ms. Divan, ASG to assist. At this stage we're not issuing notice to state govts. Based on affidavits, we'll decide."
Read the Copy of the order below: