HC advances hearing on disability
By Pradeep Rana
Times News Network

New Delhi: The Delhi high court has preponed the hearing of a petition on disability certificates, after the petitioner argued that a protected litigation would prolong the problems of physically challenged people.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S B Sinha and Justice A K Sikri had in May fixed the date for hearing in September.

The petitioner, a lawyers' group called Social Jurist, approached the court saying there were nearly two lakh disabled people who were finding it difficult to get medical certificates from the government for employment, reliefs or admissions to educational institutions.

"A delay will only disappoint them," Social Jurist counsel Ashok Agarwal told court.

The Bench then preponed the hearing from September to July 10.

The court had issued notices to the Union health ministry and Delhi state government on the public interest litigation seeking direction to the government to open medical boards in each hospital and make them accessible to persons with the disabilities.

Social Jurist alleged that lakhs of physically challenged people in the city were deprived of benefits since there were very few medical boards and they were not easily accessible. Even those who managed to reach the hospital which had such a board, would be sent away saying they should come back after a year, the petition alleged. "The government should also be directed to give publicity about where these boards are located," Agarwal told the court.

The petition also alleged that there were no orthopedic specialists on the boards of medical authorities, which deprived people with bone related disabilities from obtaining certificates.

Source: The Times of India
Dated 17th September, 2002