ANJU TALUKDAR Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a public interest litigation. Through this petition the petitioners espouse the cause of persons with disabilities. The writ petition is filed with the prayer as follows :-

(2.) THE second respondent here issued a notice dated 12. 5. 08 inviting applications from candidates seeking admission into paramedical courses in the 3 medical colleges in the State of Assam. By the said notification the second respondent announced that seats numbering 400 are to be filled up. These 400 seats are distributed among 12 courses in the various disciplines in each one of the above mentioned three medical colleges and each of the courses is for a period of two years. The notification also indicates that in each one of the courses a certain percentage of seats are reserved in favour of various categories like SC/st etc including physically handicapped persons. The notification has indicated that a maximum 3% of seats in paramedical courses will be kept reserved for persons with physical disability. The relevant portion of the notification reads as follows:-

(3.) THE petitioners challenge the said condition of the impugned notification extracted above essentially on two grounds - (1) while the mandate of the parliament under Section 39 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 is that persons with disabilities are to be provided with reservation in all educational opportunities, the impugned notification seeks to restrict the benefit only to one category of persons with physical disability and (2) While "person with disabilities" is defined under the above mentioned Act to be a person suffering from not less than 40% of the disability, the prescription of the impugned notification is that to claim the benefit of reservation under the category of