RAVI KUMAR ARORA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The ingenuity of bureaucratic system can set at naught implementation of the best-intended legislations. Judicial proceedings, which resulted in the legislation of The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 ( hereinafter to be referred to as, 'the said Act' ) are sought to be negated by the ingenuous method of forming one committee after another to identify the posts for the benefit of the persons with disability. The mandate of the Act, which came into force on 07.02.1996, is, thus, violated with impunity on the ground that such posts have not been identified for now almost eight years! Persons like the petitioner are, thus, told that they must wait till these committees identify the posts or till deluge, whichever may be later.

(2.) It is no answer to the persons with disability to be told that the Government is still not equipped and ready with the identified posts. They have waited enough and as Gabrielle Mistral said,

(3.) In order to appreciate the contours of the disputes in the present case, it is necessary to go into the history of the legislation. An insight into this can be found even from the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the said Act. In December, 1992, a meeting to launch the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Person 1993-2002 was convened by the Economic and Social Commission for Asian and Pacific Region in Beijing. This resulted in adoption of the Proclamation on the full participation and equality of people with disabilities in the Asia and Pacific Region. India was a signatory to the said Proclamation.