Additional government pleader Geeta Shastri informed the court that after a meeting with the expert committee headed by Dr Harish Shetty, the issue was resolved and as per the suggestions the resolution would be modified and accordingly notified.
After apprehensions were raised that there could be misuse of a recent Government Resolution (GR), allowing adult writers to students suffering from learning disability, the government on Monday informed the Bombay High Court that it was willing to modify the said resolution.
Additional government pleader Geeta Shastri informed the court that after a meeting with the expert committee headed by Dr Harish Shetty, the issue was resolved and as per the suggestions the resolution would be modified and accordingly notified.
The resolution would be applicable to students with learning disability. On January 8, the government had issued the resolution allowing adult writers to learning disabled students. This was in modification to the earlier practice of allowing a writer who is one grade lesser to the student with disability.
The court was also informed that a total of 41, 975 students with learning disability are identified in the state who would be appearing for exams in the academic year 2015-16. The guidelines for allowing writer will be notified in the revised resolution.
As regards to complying with an earlier order of the high court, directing the government to start learning disability centres in each district, it was informed that of the 15 to be started by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), six were operational and nine more would be by end of February. While those to be started by the public health department were facing difficulties as there was a shortage of physiologist and other experts, who could be posted at the centers.
Accordingly, the court granted six months time to the government to make necessary appointments and start the centers. The court gave directions while hearing a suo-moto public interest litigation (PIL) taken up after Shetty and other doctors attached copies of news reports, including those of dna, with their letter written on March 30 last year.
In their letter to the HC, the doctors stated that in denying services of writers to children with disability, regional director of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) was committing child rights violations. After the intervention of the court the NIOS had allowed writers to the students.
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