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On Friday, a petition requesting a two percent reservation for persons with disabilities in parliamentary, assembly and gram panchayat elections was dismissed by the Supreme Court.
A bench composed of Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih stated, “How can we issue such a direction? This is a matter of policy.” The bench then posited to the self-representing petitioner, “Had it be with regard to employment or something, we could have considered it. But how can we direct this?” The petitioner cited the apex court order of November 8 2024 which asked the Centre to mandatorily implement accessibility standards in three months’ time.
The disabled public office accessibility case brought before the court was in reality ensuring access, the bench suggested, the court assumed was looking after moreover actively providing aides to enable access.
As the bench pointed out, there are stated public offices which are required by law to have lifts and ramps constructed in order that access is given to the disabled without difficulty.
This petition does not inspire any interest on our part. We herewith declare the petition to be dismissed: this was the approach made by the bench.
The petition requested the Centre, and so the case is reserved for a person with disabilities, relates to elections stated to be in the least two percent of the requested disabled ordering reserve partition.
While judging a different case last November, the supreme court pointed out the need to allow people with disabilities “meaningful access” to public domain and ordered a two-fold strategy – retrofitting present structures to make them accessible and guaranteeing that all future constructions are accessible from the beginning.
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