New Delhi: “I have to vacate my official residence as the Chief Justice of India on the 30th of April and don’t have a place to stay beyond that. So we have been looking for a place to rent. We have two beautiful daughters, who are children with special needs. However, we realise that every house we go to, it is just not equipped to have a family with children or even adults with disabilities,” former Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said at an event last week.
The 50th CJI was speaking on the theme ‘Disability Rights & Beyond’, at an event organised by non-profit organisation Mission Accessibility at the India International Centre, New Delhi. Nearly three years ago, in 2022, two visually impaired lawyers, Rahul Bajaj and Amar Jain, founded Mission Accessibility—a non-profit that aims to create a society enabling equal and barrier-free participation for persons with disabilities.
The event was attended by over 350 people, many of whom were persons with disabilities.
Elaborating on how he had discovered a lovely home earlier that day with his family, Justice Chandrachud added that this “lovely” house suffered from the limitation of having rooms at different levels. “We have to cross a step. Now, how does a person in a wheelchair navigate this? And the nice landlord said I will put up a wooden ramp. Not quite realising that a wooden ramp isn’t just putting one little connector between levels 1 and level 0, but much more. That was the thought which went behind Rajiv Rathuri,” he said.
In December 2017, the Supreme Court, in the disability rights activist Rajiv Rathuri’s case, ruled that states and Union territories must formulate comprehensive plans for persons with disabilities, enabling them to access all infrastructure, transportation and communication services. The judgment was delivered by a bench comprising then CJI Chandrachud alongside justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
Justice Chandrachud has spearheaded several initiatives to promote disability rights, including the launch of Mitti Café—a chain of cafés in India operated by adults with physical, intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.
He introduced the Supreme Court’s Handbook Concerning Persons With Disabilities in September last year. Furthermore, on 28 November 2022, he constituted the Accessibility Committee of the Supreme Court, chaired by former SC judge, Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, with the aim of making the apex court more inclusive and accessible.
In attendance at the event were Delhi High Court judge Pratibha Singh, deputy chief commissioner for persons with disabilities Praveen Prakash Ambashta, and Nipun Malhotra, who had filed a petition against the Hindi film Aankh Micholi, contending that it contained disparaging remarks about persons with disabilities and depicted them negatively. Malhotra’s petition led to the issuance of guidelines prohibiting the derogatory portrayal of persons with disabilities in visual and electronic media.
Speaking to ThePrint, Mission Accessibility’s co-founder Amar Jain said, “We at Mission Accessibility are proud and privileged to host a first among many such conversations in times to come with the former Chief Justice of India, Dr. DY Chandrachud, who not only sensitised all stakeholders about disability rights but also reflected true sensitivity towards persons with disabilities by his actions during his tenure as the Chief Justice of India.”
The event also saw the launch of Bajaj and Jain’s Zen Access Law Associates. “We also hope to provide our legal services in a more mainstream manner, towards corporate laws, intellectual property rights and core litigation,” said Jain.
In addition, co-founder Rahul Bajaj noted, “The event involved discussions between the co-founders of Mission Accessibility and Justice Chandrachud. Ours is an organisation that provides high-quality and pro bono, or low-cost legal aid to those with disabilities, and other marginalised groups. We have taken up 42 cases on behalf of persons with disabilities in courts and tribunals across India, last year.”
Although law is an essential instrument for generating dialogue, there also needs to be adequate budgetary allocation, Justice Chandrachud said.
He added, “Court is just one avenue for bringing about change. However, the way forward is to provide for sanctions, not criminal ones, as was the case with labour laws, but monetary sanctions can be imposed on non-complying organisations. Look at the largest employers, instead of targeting small-scale shopkeepers, and then gradually spread the ambit of the Act. Currently, we don’t have infrastructure. There can also be an incentive system that entails tax benefits, among other things.”
When questioned on whether special benches should be established for hearing cases involving persons with disabilities, to ensure adequate time and attention, the ex-CJI replied, “I think creating a special bench is one answer. For instance, you have the green benches, you have senior citizens’ benches. At the same time, there are two views about it. Having one bench for dealing with cases of disability may provide for expeditious justice, but honestly, you must also have a bench with the requisite empathy and understanding about the rights of the disabled.”
Speaking in a personal capacity, he added, “It’s equally important to divide disability issues between different benches because hearing a case on disability is not like hearing a case on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code where you require somebody with that very highly specialised domain knowledge to deal with a case. Disability law is very different. Disability law cuts across the whole of the societal gamut.”
The judge also emphasised the importance of conducting accessibility audits, not only for courts but for all public spaces. “For instance, having sign language interpreters at the airport, for persons with disabilities to access these sites easily,” he said, suggesting that such services could also be booked online.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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Dosen’t His Honour know how to keep himself in the news?! Advocating for all private homes to be designed or levelled such that they are suitable for his daughters, i.e., his…no…I mean, the disabled.
I read that he had even made a statement recently about freedom of speech being non-negotiable. Indeed!
There must be something which compels some powerful public figures to discover the need for civil rights, and develop concern for the ordinary citizenry when they step down from office, and walk out to breathe the air which is also breathed by those obscure masses. It must be a novel experience. Like it is for foreign tourists when they visit Dharavi. The latter can’t ever seem to have enough of it.
His Honour’s honourable predecessor was denied the striking experience after stepping down since he then had to step straight away into the equally rarified atmosphere of our Rajya Sabha.
Not even a moment of respite! Such are the unceasing demands made by the country of its exceptional sons. His Honour’s honourable predecessor must be toiling away now on a draft by correcting the gross editorial snafus that our insufferable founders made when they were adapting the Manusmriti as our constitution.
I am glad His Honour has been afforded some time before he is given the burden of his next sinecure.