Frame Policy for Compensation to Disabled Rape Survivor - SC [Judgement Included]

Dear Colleagues,

A two Judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justices MY Eqbal and Arun Mishra, while hearing a Criminal Appeal 884/2015 filed by the accused challenging his conviction and sentence of 7 Yrs rigorous imprisonment (RI) u/s 376 IPC,  has directed all the State Governments to formulate Uniform Schemes for the Victims of Sexual Assaults. 

The rape survivor  in the case is a blind and illiterate girl, who was subjected to sexual intercourse on the promise of marriage by the accused. After upholding the Conviction and Sentence on the Accused, the Court examined the question as to ‘whether in the facts and circumstances of the case the prosecutrix is entitled to victim compensation and, if so, to what extent?’ 

In addition to the the Victim Compensation Scheme of Chhattisgarh state, the the hon'ble Court also examined the Schemes notified by other State as well. After examining the schemes, the Court held, "Perusal of the aforesaid victim compensation schemes of different States and the Union Territories, it is clear that no uniform practice is being followed in providing compensation to the rape victim for the offence and for her rehabilitation. This practice of giving different amount ranging from Rs.20,000/- to Rs.10,00,000/- as compensation for the offence of rape under section 357A needs to be introspected by all the States and the Union Territories. They should consider and formulate a uniform scheme specially for the rape victims in the light of the scheme framed in the State of Goa which has decided to give compensation up to Rs.10,00,000/-"

The Court observed, “While going through different schemes for relief and rehabilitation of victims of rape, we have also come across one Scheme made by the National Commission of Women (NCW) on the direction of this court in Delhi Domestic Working Women’s Forum vs. Union of India and Ors. [Writ Petition (Crl) No. 362/93], whereby this Court inter alia had directed the National Commission for Women to evolve a “scheme” so as to wipe out the tears of unfortunate victims of rape. This scheme has been revised by the NCW on 15th April 2010. The application under this scheme will be in addition to any application that may be made under Section 357, 357A of the Code of Criminal Procedure as provided in paragraph 22 of the Scheme. Under this scheme maximum of Rs.3,00,000/- (Three lakhs) can be given to the victim of the rape for relief and rehabilitation in special cases like the present case where the offence is against an handicapped woman who required specialized treatment and care” 

The Court passed the following directions :-

1) All the States and Union Territories shall make all endeavour to formulate a uniform scheme for providing victim compensation in respect of rape/sexual exploitation with the physically handicapped women as required under the law taking into consideration the scheme framed by the State of Goa for rape victim compensation; 

2) So far as this case is concerned, the respondent-State shall pay a sum of Rs.8,000/- per month as victim compensation to the victim who is physically handicapped, i.e. blind, till her life time.

To read the judgement click here: 

• Judgement in PDF Copy
• Judgement in Note Pad

Related News coverage

(a) Times of India - SC directs govt to frame policy for compensation to disable rape victim

(b) Deccan Herald - Pay rape Victim, SC tells states

Madras HC issues directions to Commissioner on disabled friendly Govt buildings

Disabled-friendly govt buildings: HC directs Commissioner

Business Standard | January 19, 2016

The Madras High Court today directed the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities to hold a meeting within 10 days and present a final picture before the court by March 11 on making government buildings disabled- friendly. 

The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, gave the direction on two PILs seeking to direct authorities, particularly the Chairman and Managing Director of Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the Commissioner of Chennai Corporation to implement "the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995". 

The petitioners Rajiv Rajan and M Gnana Sambndam also sought a direction to provide barrier-free environment in public places giving access to the usage of transport system. 

They also wanted the authorities to frame and notify comprehensive rules for according recognition to various types of schemes for disabled.  Already, the court had appointed T Mohan, an advocate, as amicus curiae and directed him to file a report on the matter. 

When the matter came up today, the union government placed on record a note containing the additional facilities included in a Handbook on Barrier-Free and Accessibility, 2014, which mentions the requirements for making public places disabled-friendly. 

The bench, going through the note in its order, said "let a meeting be held by the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities in consultation with the state Public Works Department and the amicus curiae within ten days so that we have a clear plan of action as to how will it be verified as to what extent the different buildings can be made disabled-friendly." 

The bench further said that such meetings should continue with frequency and to ensure that the final picture is placed before it by March 11. The court also directed the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities to remain present in the Court on March 11, 2016.

Source: Business Standard

Kerala High Court insists the 3% reservation computation from 1996 [Judgement Included]

Court: Kerala High Court

Bench: Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Anu Sivaraman

Case No.: Writ Appeal No. 362 of 2015 ( Against the single judge order 20 Oct 2014 in WP(C).No. 27234 of 2011)

Case Title: Kerala Public Service Commission Vs. E. Dineshan

Act/Law: The Persons with Disabilities Act 1995

Dear Friends,

A good clarification comes from the Kerala High Court. A double bench comprising Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Anu Sivaraman while hearing on 06 Jan 2016, wednesday, has dismissed a Writ Appeal No. 362 of 2015 titled Kerala Public Service Commission Vs. E. Dineshan, filed by the Kerala Public Service Commission seeking to quash the Single Judge order in WP(C).No. 27234 of 2011.

The Single Judge Justice A.V. Ramakrishna Pillai had  ordered that the reservation has to be computed from the date of enactment of legislation i.e. 1996 and not from the date of a Govt. order. The single judge had quashed the govt. notification to the extent it restricted the benefit of 3% reservation of  persons with disabilities mandated under Section 33 of the Act from 1.2.2010 onwards.

Download the Judgement of the single judge:  WP(C).No. 27234 of 2011 : [PDF File]  [Word File]

Read the Judgement of the single judge below:

Here is a related new from Express news

Kerala HC Upholds Order on Jobs for Physically-Challenged
By Express News Service Published: 07th January 2016 06:00 AM

KOCHI: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday upheld the order of the Single Bench declaring that handicapped persons are entitled to get three percent of vacancies in the post of assistant grade II/clerk/junior clerk/cashier from 1996 while making appointment to public sector undertakings.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Anu Sivaraman issued the order while dismissing an appeal filed by the Kerala Public Service Commission seeking to quash the Single Judge order. The Single Judge had also directed the Kerala State Electricity Board, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, Kerala State Financial Enterprises and Kerala Headload Workers Welfare Fund Board to report all existing vacancies to enable the PSC to advise candidates from the shortlist. The commission contended that the vacancies which had arisen during the validity of the rank list could only be filled. And the backlog vacancies could be filled only through a special recruitment drive.

The single judge had also quashed the state government order clarifying that the reservation of three per cent for disabled persons could be implemented only from February 1, 2010. The petitioner submitted that three per cent vacancies had to be reserved for the handicapped persons in terms of Sections 32 and 33 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

The Bench said that the single judge verdict was in accordance with the principles laid down by the Supreme Court judgement in implementing reservation available to physically handicapped persons.

Lets proactively ensure that all Indian Government websites conform to WCAG 2.0

Dear Colleagues,

The NIC guidelines known as the "Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW)" mandate that all Government websites shall conform to the international accessibility standards, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. 

Persons with disabilities use different assistive technologies to browse the web. However, if the websites or documents are not constructed as per the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the assistive technology fails to read them thus barring a person with disability from accessing the website thus rendering the website inaccessible.

India signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2007 and ratified it a few months later. The Member States are, obliged to proactively promote digital inclusion of persons with disabilities. 

Govt. of India has launched Open Government Platform - OGPL To Promote Transparency And Citizen Engagement (www.ogpl.gov.in). OGPL is a joint product from India and United States to promote transparency and greater citizen engagement by making more government data, documents, tools and processes publicly available. This will be available, as an open source platform. By making this available in useful machine-readable formats it allows developers, analysts, media & academia to develop new applications and insights that will help give citizens more information for better decisions. OGPL has become an example of a new era of diplomatic collaborations that benefit the global community that promote government transparency, citizen-focused applications, and enrich humanity.

However, if the WCAG is not implemented, it will render the OGPL movement also futile. It is for each of us to take up the matters of inaccessibility of websites of govt. departments with the state commissioners for persons with disabilities. Visit section on How to write a petition

Here are some useful documents:

• Guidelines for Government Websites
• PDF Techniques for WCAG 2.0

SC directs States & UTs to consider Acid Attack Survivors in Disability List [Judgement Included]

Dear Friends,

On Monday i.e. 07th December 2015, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, while hearing WP(C) No. 867/2013 titled Parivartan Kendra Versus Union of India and Others,  directed all states to treat "Acid Survivors" as disabled persons and extend job reservation and social welfare schemes. While it's good thought to extend the benefits of this benevolent legislation to mainstream and empower acid survivors, will there be corresponding increase in the %age of reservation? Which disability group would give up their share ? 

A bench of Justices M Y Eqbal and C Nagappan said that steps must be taken to bring such victims to the national mainstream and putting them in the category of disabled person would be a step in that direction. The victims can claim benefits under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act if they are brought in the disability list.

The central law- The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 provides for reservation in jobs etc to the tune of 3% where 1% each is reserved for Visually Impaired (both low vision and Blind), Orthopedic Disabilities (including cerebral palsy) and Hearing Impaired. There are several other categories defined in the definition of a person with disability in the Act viz. Leprosy Cured, Mental Illness, Mental Retardation etc. but the reservation is not extended to any other categories except the above three. The judgement is silent on the process of granting such reservation as the law currently has no such provision. The direction in the last para is :

"Disposing of the present writ petition, we additionally direct all the States and Union Territories to consider the plight of such victims and take appropriate steps with regard to inclusion of their names under the disability list."

Let us see how the States and UTs respond to this direction coming from none other than top court of the country. But one thing is certain, in today's scenario, no disability group would be willing to let go their share!

Judgement

The Supreme Court judgement can be accessed here at link: Writ Petition Civil No. 867 of 2013 titled Parivartan Kendra Versus Union of India and Others

Here is a media coverage from Times of India: 

Related News
Times of India-  Bring Acid Attack survivors within disable person list:- SC to Govt.