New Delhi, Nov 15 (Representative) Disability rights advocates and groups on Thursday applauded the Supreme Court’s judgement on recognizing accessibility as a fundamental right for persons with disabilities, calling it “historic, and hugely transformational”. “This ruling, which builds on years of advocacy, is set to transform public life across India, compelling both state and central governments to prioritize the rights of disabled individuals,” said the National Disability Network, an umbrella body representing 40 members from across India. The judgment follows a writ petition filed in 2005 by Rajive Raturi, a blind disability rights advocate, who sought judicial intervention to ensure equal access to public spaces for persons with disabilities. At the time, the Persons with Disabilities Act, of 1995, governed the legal framework for disability rights in India. In December 2017, the Court issued a key ruling under the amended Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and the Accessible India Campaign. The judgment laid out 11 action points for all states and union territories to improve accessibility in public spaces, including government buildings, railways, airports, the ICT ecosystem, and transport carriers. Despite these directives, many states and union territories failed to comply, prompting the court to appoint the Centre for Disability Studies (CDS) at NALSAR University of Law to assess the status of accessibility in India. By the Court’s directions, NALSAR-CDS, along with the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), National Disability Network (NDN), and others, submitted its report, “Finding Sizes for All.” NCPEDP and NDN conducted a Pan-India survey to capture the real-life accessibility challenges faced by persons with disabilities in their day-to-day lives, particularly in education and healthcare. “The tragic death of a blind student in 2005 led me to file a PIL for the implementation of accessibility provisions under the 1995 Persons with Disabilities Act. Despite years of frustration and limited progress, the Accessible India Campaign by the Union of India in 2015, gave new momentum to the case.
In 2017, Justice A.K. Sikri directed that full accessibility be ensured as per the 2016 Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, but responses from the state governments remained inadequate. After a long delay, the Supreme Court in 2023 tasked NALSAR’s Centre for Disability Studies with reviewing the progress, culminating in the November 2024 judgment, which has raised new hopes for a truly accessible India”, said Rajive Raturi, who filed this petition in 2005. The insights of the survey along with the other findings contributed to the larger study, which formed the basis for the Supreme Court’s ruling on accessibility. The order of the Supreme Court while putting a critical emphasis on Universal Design, Comprehensive inclusion across disabilities & integration of Assistive Technology; brings the fundamental right of accessibility within the golden triangle of Articles 14, 19 & 21 of the Constitution of India. Arman Ali, Executive Director of NCPEDP, emphasized that the ruling represents a pivotal moment in the fight for disability rights. “For too long, persons with disabilities have been sidelined in the development discourse. This ruling forces governments to take real, actionable steps to ensure that persons with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of public life.” The Supreme Court has now called for the establishment of minimum mandatory norms for accessibility, creating the framework for an enforceable right to accessibility. This ruling is expected to lead to stricter accountability measures, including the withholding of completion certificates and the imposition of fines for non-compliance. Prof. Amita Dhanda, Head of Centre for Disability Studies, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, added, “To realize the right to accessibility, the government has been asked to make ‘must be followed rules’. Once these rules have been made, anyone who does not follow them could be denied completion certificates and fined heavily. The Court in insisting that such rules must be made after consulting the stakeholders has poured steel into the accessibility mandate. A durable accessibility structure requires both a floor and a ceiling. A minimum mandatory floor will make the right to accessibility a reality and provide a strong foundation to all rights of persons with disabilities.”