Supreme Court issues notices to Union of India, Director General Civil Aviation and Spice Jet Ltd.

Notices were issued on 04 April 2012 in WP(C) 98 of 2012, on the basis of a writ petition filed by Ms Jeeja Ghosh, a person with cerebral palsy who was unceremoniously deplaned by Spice Jet in Kolkata on 19 Feb 2012. Despite being a regular air traveller and comfortably settled in her seat on her way to a conference on disability rights in Goa, Ms Jeeja Gosh was deemed unfit to fly by the air crew and removed before take-off. The conference, North South Dialogue IV, was organized by Dr Mithu Alur, founder of Able Disable All People Together (ADAPT), the second petitioner in the case.

Despite the existing Constitutional, domestic and international laws on the issue, Ms Jeeja Ghosh and others in her situation continue to face discrimination and harassment while travelling. These acts, occurring on various airlines across the country, are in violation of the existing Civil Aviation Requirements, and also violate the Persons With Disabilities Act, 1995.The actions are also directly contrary to the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which India ratified in 2007.

In addition to compensation for the loss and suffering that resulted from this particular incident the Petitioner is also seeking direction to ensure that the Respondents take action to ensure implementation of the Civil Aviation Requirements and other statutory and constitutional requirements, with clearly spelt out exemplary penalties for non-compliance with the regulations to ensure that such behaviour does not occur in the future.

For further information please contact:

Douglas Wyatt

+91-81300-80472
doug.hrln@gmail.com

Rajive raturi m: 9818628760 rajive.raturi@hrln.org

Visually impaired employees/teachers in Govt. Schools to get a disable friendly work environment and all facilities

The visually impaired employees/teachers in Govt. Schools to get a disable friendly work environment and all facilities as enshrined in the PWD Act, 1995 vide the ORDER dated 15/09/2011 issued by the Govt. of Punjab in our petition titled as Jagdish Mitter versus State of Punjab & Ors. (CWP-15279-2011).

Jagdish Mitter is a visually impaired school teacher in a Govt. school in Punjab. He was humiliated and ill treated by the principal of the school and his salary which according to the Govt. Instructions is required to be given in cash was deposited by her in his bank account. A petition was moved by him before the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh praying for directions to disburse his salary in cash and also a stern action against the principal for her misconduct and ill treatment. 

The Hon’ble Court was pleased to go beyond the individual protection of the petitioner and observed that there must be other employees/teachers facing this kind of ill treatment, therefore the State shall come with some protection measure. Incompliance of the said directions of the Hon’ble Court the State of Punjab has issued the order dated 15.09.2011 which categorically directs to all the schools/departments in the department of education to create an environment where all such employees/teachers can work with dignity and all facilities as enshrined under the Act are provided to the disable at  workplace.

Read the full Order here.

A Report on Harmonizing India’s laws with United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

India ratified the U.N Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (UN CRPD) in September 2007, and the convention subsequently came into force in May 2008. This convention required that India make a number of changes to its laws, policies, regulations, notifications, programs, and schemes. As a part of this process of bringing the legal instruments of India into compliance with the UN CRPD, the Indian government was required to consult with disabled people and their organizations on how best to fulfill the CRPD mandates.

HRLN participated in this process along with a number of other NGOs, and together a series of recommendations were made to the government. Some of these recommendations involved expanding existing disability-specific legislation, while other recommendations involved taking general legislation and making it disability inclusive. From these recommendations, HRLN believes that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment should take these recommendations and form a new law, along with introducing an Amending and Repealing Act to fix or remove inappropriate laws, which between them would bring India in line with its CRPD commitments.

Click here for the Report