Supreme Court slams States for failing to file status report on quota for disabled

The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up some states and Union territories (UTs) for not filing the status report with regard to implementation of its verdict and the legal scheme to grant of reservation to differently abled people and asked them to furnish the same within two weeks. 

"Let the response be filed with two weeks failing which the court will be compelled to direct presence of secretaries of the departments concerned," a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy said and posted the matter for December 1. The apex court was hearing a plea filed by Justice Sunanda Bhandare Foundation which has sought direction to the Centre and the states to file reports on the status of the implementation of provisions of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

The court had on August 31 noted that states like Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttarakhand and some others have not filed their status report and had asked them to do the same in two weeks. At the outset of the hearing on Wednesday, the counsel appearing for the foundation told the bench that states like Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Goa, Karnataka, Odisha and UTs like Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu are yet to file their response.

 Irked over the non-compliance, the bench then said, "Let the secretaries come and explain. We have directed you to file a response to the chart (given by the foundation) and you have not filed it."While advocates representing many of these states and UTs  told the court that they filed it, some of the lawyers said that they would furnish it soon. The foundation had filed a detailed chart with respect to the steps taken by the states and UTs and what more was required to be done by them in implementation of the verdict and the provisions of the Act to grant three per cent quota in jobs to differently abled persons.

The Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act provides for separate one per cent reservation for each of the three categories of persons with disabilities -- persons suffering from blindness and low vision, those suffering from hearing disability and those suffering from locomotor disability or cerebral palsy.