Times of India: Madras HC restores extra time for blind students 26 Mar 2009, 0453 hrs IST, Lakshmy Ramanathan, TNN
Print Email Share Save Comment Text: CHENNAI: Three hundred and sixty six visually impaired students from Tamil Nadu appearing for their class ten board examinations this year can at last breathe easy. On Wednesday, the Madras high court passed an order, restoring the one hour extra time for the blind as granted in a 1993 government order that was annulled by a communiqu? issued by the department of government examinations (GE) on March 3, 2009. The first bench comprising chief justice Hemant Laxman Gokhale and justice FM Ibrahim Kalifulla passed this order based on a public interest writ petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Handicapped Federation Charitable Trust (TNHFCT) in response to an announcement made by the GE on March 13, 2009. The bench said, "As per provisions laid out in GO no. 270 issued in 1993, one hour extra time should be granted to all visually impaired students irrespective of whether they availed this exemption in previous years. This is applicable to both those who are writing the exam with the help of a scribe or in the Braille format." The bench then directed the director of GE to communicate the order to all district educational officers with immediate effect. The high court order has put to rest a controversy that has raged for close to three weeks. On March 9, 2009, The Times Of India had informed its readers about a communiqu? issued by the GE which annulled provisions of a 1993 government order issued by the department of social welfare that granted extra time to all physically handicapped students, including the visually impaired, appearing for board examinations. Faced with protests from various pressure groups, the GE finally annulled its own communiqu? and announced on March 13 that centres that had been granting extra time hitherto could continue to do so. The department, however, made no new orders for those institutions seeking to implement it, citing any announcement "as inappropriate during election time". Following this, TNHFCT filed a petition, stating that it was unfair to restore the benefit to select institutions. Counsel RR Prabhakaran and P Gurusamy appearing for TNHFCT argued that it violated article 14 (equality before law) of the constitution. Reacting to the order issued by the bench, TMN Deepak, vice president, TNHFCT, said, "The judiciary has stood by people with disabilities. People suffering from disorders and disabilities have their own difficulty in writing. Provisions of the 1993 government order should be implemented in its full spirit and holistically. A committee should also be formed to make sure that these guidelines are being followed." lakshmy.ramanat...@timesgroup.com ________________________________ Notice: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, use, review, distribution, printing or copying of the information contained in this e-mail message and/or attachments to it are strictly prohibited. If you have received this email by error, please notify us by return e-mail or telephone and immediately and permanently delete the message and any attachments. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The Bank accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
