The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Harshad Jadhav, a blind man seeking directives to the state government to implement the provisions of Disabilities Act, 1995, and provide jobs to the physically challenged people in government bodies.
Maharashtra government’s attitude treating persons with total and partial blindness ‘uniformly’ while considering them for jobs under the physically challenged quota has not gone down well with the Bombay high court.
A division bench of acting chief justice JN Patel and justice SC Dharmadhikari on Thursday observed: “The authorities need to be careful and sensitive towards these people. These people are not beggars, they can perform if given an opportunity.”
The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Harshad Jadhav, a blind man seeking directives to the state government to implement the provisions of Disabilities Act, 1995, and provide jobs to the physically challenged people in government bodies.
Chief secretary JP Dange, in an affidavit submitted in the court, stated that the government is following the recommendations of an expert committee, as per the provisions of the act. “Therefore, the recommendations are binding and the state has no authority to overrule them,” said the affidavit.
Dange also justified state’s stand on treating the totally blind and those with low vision uniformly. “If the number of persons from totally blind category find it difficult to get selected, the state can hardly do anything in this regard,” said his affidavit.
The judges particularly expressed displeasure about this statement, observing that such an attitude will make the totally blind compete with either with the partially blind or those with poor vision.
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