Madras HC dismissed the plea of TN Govt. seeking clarification of the order that directed them to purchase only accessible low floor buses.

Court:             Madras High Court, India

Case Title:     The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Ltd. Vs. Vaishnavi Jayakumar & Ors.

Case No. :      WMP/83132/2022 in WP/5957/2021

Filed on :        03-08-2022  

Reiterating its earlier order, the Madras High Court refused to alter or clarify its earlier order dated 05 Jul 2022 on allowing only low floor disabled friendly buses in the state.  The earlier order had directed the state transport corporations to procure 2,213 buses in strict compliance with the rules and regulations of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act and that cannot be altered, said the  the first bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala.

“The order was passed as per the directions of the Supreme Court. If you (the corporation) want to alter it you have to approach the Supreme Court,”

While passing the last order, the the bench had lifted the ban on procuring new public transport buses on condition that the corporation shall comply with the rules and regulations of the RPWD Act. Subsequently, alleging that the condition to comply with the rules caused an impediment, the corporation moved a memo to clarify the order.

The corporation sought to submit that operating the low-floor disabled-friendly buses was difficult, as it caused damage to buses. But the court refused to accept the contention, and thus the plea was permitted to be withdrwan and thus the Court dismissed the same as withdrawn. 

The attempt of the corporation only shows that instead of addressing the accessibility of roads and buses, it sought to find ways not to implemnet the law of the land citing frivolous excuses for a long time. In earlier matters filed before the Madras HC, the court had clearly said that while it accepted that it may be difficult and costly to make the existing buses accessible, henceeforth all new buses purchased to replenish the public trdansport fleet must be accessible complying with the law and the State happily agreed to it. However, it started putting forth flimsy excuses and did not take any action on improving the road infrastructure, bus boarding platforms and road conditions etc.

Here is the copy of the Affidavit on behalf of Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Ltd. embedded below:

Madrash HC: Chennai Metro Stations do not meet accessibility mandate of Harmonized Guidelines - argues Disability Activist

Court:         Madrash High Court

Bench:        Admitted by Bench of M.M.SUNDRESH, J. and R.HEMALATHA, J.

Case No.     W.P. No. 11041 of 2020

Case Title:  Vaishnavi Jayakumar  Vs. State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities & CMRL

Case admitted on : 21.08.2020

Next Date: 27.07.2022

Case Brief

This Writ Petition has been filed by our colleague Ms. Vashnavi Jayakumar of Disabilty Rights Alliance, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of Writ of Mandamus Directing the 2nd respondent i.e. Chennai Metrol Rail Ltd.  to forthwith retrofit its existing metro stations to comply with the Harmonised Guidelines and space standards for Barrier Free BuiltEnvironment for persons with Disabilities and Elderly Persons issued by the Ministry of Urban Development in 2016 and to strictly comply with section 41 of the Rights of persons with Disabilities Act 2016 read with Rule 15 of Rights of persons with Disabilities Rules 2017 in the design and Construction of metro Stations under Construction, including stations planned in the future.

The petitioner informed the court that the metro stations constructed by the respondent CMRL were in violation of the law and were not universally accessible. As per the petitioner, the following features needed to be included in the stations:

i. Anti-reflective flooring which contrasts with walls in colour and is non-slip in dry or wet conditions (resistance of 40-70)

ii. Wheelchair accessible ticket counter with audio induction loop for hearing aid users

iii. Accessible kiosks for blind passengers and wheelchair users.

iv. High contrast signage, displays, information tools and controls with multimodal communication

v. Sliding doors for accessible toilets

vi. Universally designed safety and evacuation equipment

vii. Tactile, high contrast way-finding

viii. Accessible parking

Through various interim orders, all the 32 Metro stations of the CMRL were access audited to see if they meet the requirements of the Harmonised Guidelines and Space Standards 2016 and the respondent has been implementing the same to comply with law.

On 11 Sep 2020, the bench of Mr. Justice MM Sundresh and MRs. Justice R. Hemalatha  directed the first respondent to depute his officials to undertake inspection exercise after making inspection to the existing Metro Rail Stations and file a report on the sufficiency of the infrastructure facilities qua disabled persons. A report in this regard will have to be filed on or before 06.10.2020.

On 11 Dec 2020, the learned counsel for the petitioner had drawn the attention of the Court to Rule 15 of the Right of Persons with Disabilities Rules 2017, as well as the order of ad-interim direction dated 28.06.2016 made in WP.No. 38224/2005 titled Rajiv Rajan Vs. CMD, Metropolitan Transport Corporn (Chennai) Ltd.  and submitted that in the light of the mandate cast upon the relevant statutory provisions, it is obligatory rather mandatory upon the 2nd respondent to strictly comply with the said provisions so as to make the Metro Rail Stations as well as travel disabled friendly and prays for appropraite directions.

On 15 June 2022 the counsel for the second respondent/CMRL submitted that the matter may be taken up after six weeks so that they can take further action to comply with the Harmonised Guidelines and space standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for persons with Disabilities and Elderly Persons. It is, however, submitted that except this, necessary action has already been taken, leaving few, which would also be taken up within the period of six weeks.  

In view of the submissions made by CMRL, the respondents have been given time to take necessary action. The matter has been posted to July 27 for further hearing

Watch out this space for the developments.

Madras HC | TN Govt. GO to the extent it offends RPWD Act or Provisions of Harmonised Guidelines & SC Judgement in Rajive Raturi case.

Court:          Madras High Court

Bench:         Mr. Munishwar Nath Bhandari, Chief Justice and Mrs. Justice N. Mala. 

Case No.      W.P.No. 5957 of 2021

Case Title:     Vaishnavi Jayakumar Vs. State of Tamil Nadu & two Others

Date of Judgement: 05 July 2022

The writ petition challenges a G.O.  on the ground of violation of Section 41 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. It is also on the ground that when no direction has been given by the Apex Court to have only 10% of the government buses disabled friendly, G.O. indicates only 10% of the total number of Government buses to be low floor buses. 

Further to our previous post dated 22 July 2021 titled Madras HC to Tamil Nadu Govt. - No purchasing buses for public transport, unless they are disabled friendly.

On 26.08,2021, it was again submitted on behalf of the State that even though the legal requirement may not have been complied with, certain other factors need also to be taken into consideration, particularly in the wake of the pandemic and the economic loss suffered by all States, including this State. It is further submitted that though it is imperative that all buses become disabled friendly, but the disabled friendly buses cost much more than ordinary buses and require much better road conditions, particularly within the city limits, than may now be available. 

The bench however, said, "Appropriate measures should have been taken much earlier so that things would not come to such a pass. Though it can be appreciated that the pandemic has caused a severe loss and city roads may still not be viable to receive low platform heavy duty vehicles, there has to be much more acquisition of disabled friendly buses and investment in appropriate roads since the law has been in place for a considerable period of time. At the same time, some latitude may be offered so that the larger public interest is served and the blanket embargo on acquisition of buses does not completely disable the public transport system."

Matter was finally heard and disposed off on 05 July 2022, in following terms:

"the writ petition is disposed of causing interference with G.O.Ms.No.31 dated 24.02.2021 only to the extent that it offends any of the provisions of the Act or Rules or the Harmonised Guidelines issued by the Government of India and directing the respondents to ply all the Government buses, in conformity with the provisions of the Act and Rules and the Harmonised Guidelines quoted above and in the light of the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of Rajive Raturi supra. There will be no order as to costs

 Read the Judgement dated 05 July 2022  embedded herein below:

Madras HC to Tamil Nadu Govt. - No purchasing buses for public transport, unless they are disabled friendly

Court: Madrash High Court, India

Bench: Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy 

Case No(s): W.P. No. 5957 of 2021(Lead Case) along with WP 38224 of 2005 and WP 923 of 2007

Case Title:     Vaishnavi Jayakumar Vs. State of Tamil Nadu & two Others (Lead Case)

Date of Hearing: 22 July 2021

Case Brief 

In a push for the rights and independence of people with disabilities in their commute, the Madras high court on Thursday restrained Tamil Nadu from purchasing any new bus to its fleet in the public transport system unless such buses were disabled-friendly as prescribed by law.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy passed the interim injunction on a batch of pleas that have been pending before the court for years including from as far back as 2005, seeking universal use of disabled-friendly buses in public tranport fleet. 

One of the writ petitions in the batch i.e. W.P. No. 5957 of 2021 had been filed by cross disability rights advocate, Vaishnavi Jayakumar. She had challenged a Government Order (GO) issued on February 24 this year, for introduction of only 10% of low floor buses and 25% of buses fitted with lift mechanism or any other suitable mode, to provide easy access to wheelchair bound passengers, out of the total buses to be procured for Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Limited.

The petitioner had contended that the GO violates Section 41 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016. The legislation requires the State government to take suitable measures to provide facilities for persons with disabilities at bus stops, railway stations and airports and also access to all modes of transport by even retrofitting old modes of transport wherever it was technically feasible.

She said the GO for introducing only 10% of low floor buses and those with lift mechanism was also in violation of Articles 14 (equality before law) and 21 (right to life) of the Constitution. “The GO is an arbitrary exercise of power by the State. It is not only in complete violation of the rights of persons with disabilities but also contumacious, since it violates several judicial orders,” she said.

The petitioner had sought to restrain the state from acquiring any further bus unless it conforms to the requirements of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017 and under the latter, Rule 15 in particular. Rule 15 mandates that every establishment complies with the specified standard as indicated in a notification issued by the Government of India on September 20, 2016.

Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram said the government was purchasing disabled-friendly buses in phases because the roads were in bad shape and they would damage the low-floored buses.

Advocate Rita Chandrasekar, representing Metropolitan Transport Corporation, said the low floor buses cost ₹58 lakh each as against ₹26 lakh for regular buses and hence there was a delay in purchasing such buses.

The state's submission that low-floor buses were expensive and would be damaged by bad roads was rejected. The state has been submitting excuses of certain practical difficulties, particularly in finding resources not only to acquire the more expensive buses but also to create the road infrastructure required for such sophisticated buses. It sought more time to indicate a roadmap.

Rejecting their submissions, the bench in its order said, "In view of the mandate of the statute, read with the Rules framed thereunder and the notification published in accordance therewith, there may be no room to manoeuvre and little scope for the court to delay the implementation of the policy as reflected in the statute and the laws made thereunder.

The court further said in its order, "the State seeks time to indicate a road-map. However, it is necessary that the State be restrained from acquiring any further bus for the public transport system which does not conform to the specifications indicated in the notification of September 20, 2016 referred to above. In other words, the State will not acquire any new bus for use thereof as part of the public transport system unless such bus meets the standards indicated in the notification of September 20, 2016".

Read the interim order dated 22 Jul 2021, embedded below:

Read the Final updates in the case and Final Order dated 05 Jul 2022 on link: Madras HC | TN Govt. GO to the extent it offends RPWD Act or Provisions of Harmonised Guidelines & SC Judgement in Rajive Raturi case.