DHC constitutes High Powered Committee to recommend Solutions for ensuring Access to Financial Services for people with vision impairments [Court Order included]

Dear Colleagues,

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, while hearing a petition filed by Mr. George Abraham, a petitioner with vision impairment on the difficulties being faced by visually challenged persons in accessing financial services and general non-compliance of the provisons of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, has constituted a seven membeer High Powered Committee of experts to recommend solutions. 

The bench was hearing several public interest petitions which were clubed with the lead case by Mr. George Abraham. Other petitioners included All India Confederation of the Blind, Blind Graduate Forum of India and Rohit Dandriyal & others. 

The High Powered Committee shall be chaired by Prof. M Balakrishnan, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi. The order said, "High Powered Committee is constituted by this Court to look into all the grievances raised in the present application and the connected writ petitions to offer practical solutions in the matter. It is needless to state that the scope of the work of the Committee will not be confined only to the issues raised in the present writ petitions but other ancillary issues as well." 

As per the Court order dated 29 July 2022, the High Powered Committee shall consist of the following persons:- 

i. Prof. M. Balakrishnan, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi. (Chairman of the committee)

ii. Prof. Kolin Paul, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi. 

iii. Ms. Manisha Mishra, (GM), Department of Regulation. RBI

iv. Mr. Tushar Bhattacharya, (DGM) Department of Supervision. RBI 

v. Mr. George Abraham, the Petitioner in W.P.(C) 694/2020. 

vi. Mr. Amar Jain, Member of Blind Graduates Forum of India i.e. the Petitioner in W.P.(C) 64/2019. 

vii. Officer to be nominated by the Union of India. 

The court also requested the Director, IIT Delhi  to provide all logistic support to the Committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Prof. M Balakrishnan.

The petitioner Mr. George Abraham had prayed before the Court seeking directions/ appropriate writs:

1. to ensure that all the banks comply with the Master Circular DBR No. Leg. BC. 21 / 09.07.006 / 2015-16, dated July 1, 2015 issued by/  Respondent No.3;
2. to ensure that card reading devices for making card payments (Point-of-Sale Machines) are accessible for visually challenged persons;
3. to ensure that all bank websites and mobile phone applications for financial services are tested for accessibility at every stage of transaction;
4. to make it mandatory that all net banking facilities and mobile phone applications comply with W3C guidelines which are recognized by the Government of India;
5. to make it mandatory that all digital mobile wallet applications are accessible and user-friendly for visually challenged persons;
6. to ensure all ATM machines are voice-enabled and accessible for visually challenged persons;
7. to ensure that all software and hardware products procured by banks to be disabled-friendly;
8. for implementation of Section 13 of the Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016 with regard to visually challenged persons having control over their financial affairs;
9. to ensure that employees and customer care service providers of all banks and financial services are trained and sensitized towards the needs and requirements of visually challenged customers;

"This Court is pained to observe at this juncture that it is unfortunate that judicial intervention is required in such matters when measures to ensure ease of accessibility for the specially-abled should be implemented in a proactive manner. However, this Court hopes that the Committee will take these observations into consideration while arriving at a feasible solution," the Bench said.

The Court has granted three months to the committee for filing status report in the matter.  The matter will now be heard on November 25, 2022.

Here is the Court order in the case W.P.(C) 694/2020 titled George Abraham Vs. Union of India & Ors. dated 29 July 2022

Uttarakhand HC: Persons With Disabilities Entitled To Horizontal Reservation Cutting Across "All Categories": HC Quashes UKPSC Recruitment Notification

High Court:   Uttarakhand High Court

Bench:              Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Ramesh Chandra Khulbe

Case No. :         WP(S/B) No.49 of 2022, 

Case Title:        Manish Chauhan and another Vs. State of Uttarakhand and another

Date of Judgement:  27 July 2022

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Case Brief:

The Uttarakhand High Court has quashed an advertisement issued by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission notifying vacancies for the post of Assistant Professors in Government Colleges, finding it to be in violation of Rule 11(4) of the Rights of Persons with Disability Rules, 2017 and the Supreme Court's decision in Indra Sawhney vs. Union of India and Anr.

The notification prescribed Horizontal reservation in a manner that in the Un-reserved category, no reservation was available to the physically handicapped candidates in the subject of Political Science. Similarly, in the History, no reserved seat was shown for a candidate of disability category who may also be a Scheduled Tribes candidate. 

"The manner in which the State has sought to apply Horizontal reservations is completely contrary to the decision of the Supreme Court in Indra Sawhney (Supra)...Persons with disabilities are entitled to horizontal reservation cutting across all categories." the bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Ramesh Chandra Khulbe observed.

The Court explained that an otherwise eligible and qualified candidate/person with disability would first be allocated a seat and depending on whichever category that person belongs to, i.e. whether the person is a Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes, or is a General Category candidate, the seat in that category would stand exhausted.

In Indra Sawhney the Supreme Court had elucidated that Horizontal reservations cut across the vertical reservations and persons selected against this quota will be placed in the appropriate category. "If he belongs to S.C. category he will be placed in that quota by making necessary adjustments; similarly, if he belongs to open competition (O.C.) category, he will be placed in that category by making necessary adjustments."

Similarly, Rule 11(4) of the 2017 Rules prescribes that reservation for persons with disabilities in accordance with the provisions of section 34 of the Act shall be horizontal and the vacancies for persons with benchmark disabilities shall be maintained as a separate class.

In its counter affidavit, the UKPSC  submitted that their manner of working out horizontal reservation had been prescribed by the State of Uttarakhand. The Counter affidavit of State of Uttarakhand  stated that the impugned advertisement was issued in lieu of a government order dated 22.05.2020. The GO had stated that "if under horizontal reservation no eligible candidate is found fit for selection, the selection for the said post will be done as per norms of general selection except for the posts reserved for Divyang (Disabled Person)"

The Court opined that the manner in which the State had sought to apply horizontal reservations was legally unsustainable and the notification was accordingly quashed with liberty to come out with a fresh advertisement strictly in compliance with the law. 

Read the Court judgement embedded below: