'Very Bad' : Supreme Court On Exclusion Of Blind Persons From Uttarakhand Judicial Service Exam; Seeks PSC's Response

The Supreme Court today(July 25) issued notice to the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission on a writ petition filed by a blind candidate seeking to appear for the Uttarakhand Judicial Service Exams. She has challenged the exclusion of persons with blindness and locomotor disability, and also persons who are not domiciled in Uttarakhand, from being eligible for the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) quota in the Uttarakhand Judicial Exams.Before a bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan, Advocate Anchala Bhatheja submitted that the writ petition challenges the constitutionality of the Advertisement dated 16.05.2025 issued for recruitment to the Uttarakhand Judicial Service Civil Judge (Junior Division). The petitioner is a person with 100% visual impairment and is challenging the exclusion of blind, visually impaired persons and those with locomotor disability from being eligible for the judicial exams.On this, Justice Pardiwala remarked: "That's very bad, very bad on the part of the Government. Who appears for Uttarakhand?" When the Court was informed that none had entered an appearance and the exams were set to begin on August 31, the Court issued fresh notice including dasti returnable two weeks. It ordered that in the next hearing, if nobody appears, the Court will pass orders accordingly. The advertisement has been challenged as it limits the scope of eligibility under the seats reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD). The seats are categorically reserved only for 4 subtypes - Leprosy Cured, Acid Attack Victims, and Muscular Dystrophy.The plea states that such a limitation arbitrarily excludes all other benchmark disabilities, including blindness and locomotor disability, in violation of Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act).Notably, S. 34(1)(a) states : Every appropriate Government shall appoint in every Government establishment, not less than four per cent. of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities of which, one per cent. each shall be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (a), (b) and (c) and one per cent. for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (d) and (e), namely:(a) blindness and low vision;(c) locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy;The petition also highlights that the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission has overlooked the request of the petitioner for alloting a scribe during the exams.The plea mainly challenges the exclusion on three main aspects : (1) its violative of Articles 14, 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Constitution of India; (2) it is contrary to the decision of the Supreme Court in Re: Recruitment of Visually Impaired in Judicial Services V. Registrar General, High Court of Madhya Pradesh; (3) the eligibility under the PwBD category has been also denied for not a being a domicile of the Uttrakhand state.In Re: Recruitment of Visually Impaired in Judicial Services, the Supreme Court bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan struck down a rule of the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Services Rules to the extent it barred visually impaired and low vision candidates from judicial service.The Court emphatically held that "visually impaired and low vision candidates are eligible to participate in the selection for posts under the judicial service.The following reliefs have been sought by the petitioner towards Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (respondent no.1); Registrar General, High Court of Uttarakhand (respondent no.2) and State of Uttarakhand, through Secretary, Department of Social Welfare (respondent no.3) :A. Issue a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ, order or direction quashing the Advertisement dated 16.05.2025 issued by Respondent No. 3, insofar as it prevents persons who are not domiciled in the State of Uttarakhand from applying in the reserved PWBD category and accordingly avail of the reasonable accommodation that they are entitled to, under the RPWD Act, 2016;B. Issue a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ, order or direction quashing the aforesaid advertisement, insofar as it restricts eligibility for persons with benchmark disabilities only to the subcategories of Leprosy Cured, Acid Attack Victims, and Muscular Dystrophy;C. Direct Respondent No. 1 to revise and re-issue the Advertisement dated 16.05.2025 to allow all persons with benchmark disabilities who are not domiciled in the state of Uttarakhand, as well as the persons who have other disabilities besides the 4 specified subcategories, to apply for the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division);D. Direct Respondent No. 2, to ensure strict adherence to the judgment of this Hon'ble Court in In Re: Recruitment of Visually Impaired in Judicial Services v. Registrar General, High Court of Madhya Pradesh,...

'Very Bad' : Supreme Court On Exclusion Of Blind Persons From Uttarakhand Judicial Service Exam; Seeks PSC's Response

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

Tags