Summary
Addressing disability access in higher education, the Court required compliance with the statutory five per cent reservation for persons with benchmark disabilities in covered institutions and annual reporting. It directed UGC to constitute an expert committee to study accessibility and pedagogy proposals, implementation, funding and monitoring, rather than immediately mandate every suggested facility.
Issues
- How higher-education reservation requirements should be enforced and how accessibility and inclusive teaching proposals should be developed.
Provisions considered
- Sections 2(r) and 32, Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016Government and Government-aided higher-education institutions must reserve at least five per cent seats for persons with benchmark disabilities; section32 also provides five years’ upper-age relaxation. (¶¶ 5–8, 17(i))
- Section 39, Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995The predecessor provision required at least three per cent reservation; the Court distinguished the expanded2016 requirement. (¶ 3–6)
Held
- Covered institutions must comply with section 32 in admissions each year and report course-wise disability admissions to the relevant commissioners, who must inquire into compliance and initiate appropriate consequential action against defaulters. (¶ 8)
- Law colleges must also report compliance to BCI, and other institutions to UGC each year. Those bodies could inspect to verify compliance. (¶ 17(i))
- Equal educational opportunity requires accessible facilities and teaching suited to students’ needs. The suggestions were reasonable, but their feasibility and implementation modalities required expert consideration. (¶¶ 10–14, 17)
- UGC was to establish a committee for a detailed accessibility and pedagogy study, including funding, monitoring and implementation deadlines and possible in-house institutional support bodies. The study was to finish by30June2018, with its report and action-taken report submitted in July2018. (¶ 17(ii)–(iii))
Result
Petitions disposed of with mandatory reservation and reporting directions and a UGC expert-study process. Committee exercise due30June2018; report and action-taken report dueJuly2018 for further Court consideration.