PIL before Supreme Court against exclusion of disabled persons from appointment as judges

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Central government to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition challenging the exclusion of persons with disabilities (PwDs) from appointments as judges in the district judiciary [Dr Renga Ramanujam and anr vs Union of India and ors]..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice to all the High Courts and State governments as well..The plea said that the existing judicial services rules violate the fundamental rights of PwDs by not complying with the 4 per cent reservation mandate for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities. The petition also flagged inconsistencies in the reservation percentage among different States. The plea said that an expert body should be constituted to examine and standardise these rules, apart from striking down of the existent discriminatory hiring practices that are inconsistent with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act."The Respondents have failed to recognize that with the support of the new technology, persons with Benchmark disabilities can also perform various tasks on an equal basis with others ... A person can "see" and ascertain the demeanor of a witness even without sight and can read documents with the help of software and other appliances even without physical sight or vision. A person can listen to a witness and hear arguments of counsel even if one is visually impaired," it underscored.Further, there are sitting judges at all levels of the judiciary the world over, who are competent even with low vision and blindness."The requirements of the job of a judge are that a person should be able to understand the facts and submissions, discern, evaluate the evidence, and make a decision for which a keen judicial mind is needed and not the physical faculties of sight ... by not identifying the post of a Judge for persons with benchmark disabilities despite the central government identifying the same as being suitable discriminates against such persons by making stereotypical assumptions as to what they are capable of." .Senior Advocate Sanjay Parikh appeared for the petitioners, two specially-abled academicians. The plea was filed through advocate Shashank Singh and drawn by him along with advocates Prapti Shrivastava, Akash Alex and Pulkit Tomer.