F.No. 34 - 02/2015 -- DD-IIl
Government of IndiaMinistry of Social Justice and EmpowermentDepartment of
Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities(5th Floor, Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO
Complex, New Delhi) Dated 15th May, 2015 OFFICE MEMORANDUM Subject:
'Constitution of an Expert Committee to look into the issues relating
toimplementation of the guidelines for conducting written examinations
forpersons with disabilities - holding of 1st meeting reg.
The undersigned is directed to refer to this Department’s OM of even number
dated 24th April, 2015 forwarding herewith a copy of the minutes of the
preliminary discussion of the Expert Committee held under the chairmanship of
Secretary, DEPwD on 13.4.2015 in the Conference Room of the Department, B-2,
5th Floor, Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex, New Delhi and to forward herewith a
copy of the revised minutes of the preliminary discussion of the Expert
Committee on the above date.
Encl: as above
{Sd} (K.V.S. Rao)
DirectorTele 2436 9054 Copy to :(i) Shri R.K.Arora, Addl. Secretary, UPSC,
Dholpur House, New Delhi w.r.t to their letter No. 1/3/2015-E.1 (B) dated 27th
April, 2015.(ii) Shri Sanjay Mehrishi, Joint Secretary, UPSC, Dholpur House,
New Delhi.(iii) Ms. Archana Verma, Joint Secretary, DOP&T, North Block, New
Delhi.(iv) Shri Chetan Prakash Jain, Member, Staff Selection Commission, CGO
Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.(v) Dr. Dharmendra Kumar, Director, PDDUIPH, New
Delhi(vi) Dr. A.K. Sinha, Director, AYJNIHH, Mumbai(vii) Shri T.D. Dhariyal,
Consultant, O/O CCPD, New Delhi(viii) Shri Davinder Pal Singh, Deputy
Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource
Development, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi.(viii) JS & CEO, National Trust, New
Delhi.(ix) Director, NlVH, Dehradun(x) Sr. PPS to Secretary (DEPwD), New
Delhi.(xi) PPS to JS (AKA)
Copy to NlC, Min. of SJ & E, New Delhi with the request to upload the above
minutes on Ministry's website Minutes of the preliminary discussions of the
Expert Committee to review the Guidelines for conducting Written Examinations
for PWD held under the chairmanship of Secretary, DEPwD on 13.04.2015 at 04:00
PM in the Conference Room, 5th Floor, Paryavaran Bhawan, New Delhi The List of
Participants is at Annexure. 2. Secretary, DEPwD welcomed the participants and
requested Joint Secretary, DEPwD to briefly explain the background of
constitution of the expert Committee and the agenda to be discussed in the
meeting.
3. Joint Secretary, DEPWD stated that on the basis of the recommendations of
Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities, the Ministry had issued
detailed guidelines for conducting examination for Persons with Disabilities on
26th February, 2013. The guidelines, inter-alia include provision for scribe /
reader/ lab assistant, grant of extra time to the extent of 20 minutes per hour
of examination, option of choosing mode of taking examination in Braille or in
computer or in large print etc. Recently, UPSC has raised certain issues
relating to practical implementation of theguidelines. UPSC is of the view that
their comments on the draft guidelines communicated in 2009 were not considered
when the guidelines contained in the OM were issued in 2013.
4. Joint Secretary, DEPwD informed that basically UPSC has raised the issue of
allowing private scribes especially while taking conventional descriptive type
examinations (other than multiple type question based examination),
practicality of allowing question paper in Braille etc. The issues raised by
UPSC were also discussed in a meeting held in the Union Public Service
Commission by the Chairman, UPSC in which Secretary, DoPT was also present.
Staff Selection Commission has also raised similar observations. In order to
look into the practical implementation issues raised by UPSC, SSC etc. an
expert Committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary, DEPWD has been
constituted. 5. UPSC has now brought out a detailed note outlining their
observations on implementation of these guidelines for consideration of the
Expert Committee. He further stated that the Committee was also required to
decide the associations/ experts to represent different disability associations
namely visual impairment, hearing impairment and locomotor disabilities in the
Expert Committee. He also brought to the notice of the Committee to the fact
that the Department has received representations requesting nomination of
experts for the cause of other disabilities such asAutism Spectrum Disorder,
Specific Learning Disabilities, and Speech Impairment etc.
6. Secretary DEPWD requested representative from UPSC to briefly explain the
problem being faced by them in implementing the guidelines.
7. The representatives from UPSC informed that they are allowing the candidates
to use their own scribes, in addition to Government scribes for the objective
type examination such as Civil Services (Preliminary) examination. However, in
case of Civil Services (main) examination, which is of descriptive type they
are allowing only Government scribes who are arranged by Coordinator
Supervisors concerned. They stated that the discretion to the candidates to opt
for own scribe / reader would have an impact on the integrity of the
examination process as the candidate maybring a scribe who is more proficient
than him and who could write/ correct/ improve the content of the answers. This
may also become a commercial activity prone to malpractices. UPSC has also
received representations alleging malpractices by the Candidates who had been
permitted to have their own scribes. UPSC was of the view that no amount of
invigilation could effectively obviate such malpractices in a descriptive
papers / examination.
8. The representatives from UPSC further stated that the possibility of
aspersions being cast in the public domain about the performance of such
candidates (who is allowed to use his own scribe) even if the candidate
qualified the examination on merit could not be ruled out.
9. They have further stated that UPSC has neither the presence nor the
resources to identify the scribes so as to make panels at the Districts/
Division/ State level as per the requirements of the examination Commission.
Therefore, they have suggested that such a panel should be prepared, maintained
and updated by the State Government concerned through district authorities from
the local resources/ education Institutions and detailed guidelines for this
purpose may be formulated by the Government of India. This panel would also
facilitate the candidates with an option to select more than one scribe/ reader
for writing different papers from such panel of scribes.
10. The representatives of UPSC have further mentioned that at present, the
scribes are being arranged through the Coordinating Supervisors who are
nominated by the concerned State Governments. UPSC was of the view that the
Government’s scribes are governed by conduct rules and thereby the chances of
malpractice through them is minimised whereas the Exam conducting body has no
control over the private scribes.
1 1. As regards the issue of doing away with fixation of any criteria for the
scribe, representative of UPSC stated that there should be certain eligibility
criteria like educational qualification for the scribe so as to preclude the
use of scribe who is more qualified and has the ability to improve the
performance of the candidate which would tantamount to malpractice. Further,
they have stated that at present the Commission has been arranging for two
scribes for each eligible candidate keeping in view any aspect of emergency and
also an option for the candidate to select one out of the two scribes or change
the scribe opted by him. Allowing candidates to bring more than one own scribe/
reader on his own for writing different papers may give the candidates an undue
advantage and disturb the level playing field. This may also have impact on
integrity of the examination process since the candidate would tend to bring
subject specific specialists as scribe for different papers in the examination.
12. The representative of UPSC also stated that the UPSC has been providing
scribes to the Visually Impaired candidates much before the guidelines in the
said OM came into existence and very few complaints have been received from the
candidates about the quality of the scribes. Also, a large number of such
candidates have been opting for the Government scribes even when they had been
exercised the option to bring their own scribes in the Civil Services
(Preliminary) Examination. This is sufficient in itself to establish the
efficacy of the system which is a proven and a well established system being
operated by the UPSC. 13. In addition to the above, the representative of the
UPSC mentioned that except for one odd case, the Commission has not allowed the
candidates to bring their own scribe in the Civil Services (Main) Examination.
UPSC has been issuing detailed instructions to the Coordinating Supervisors
that the scribes being provided to the candidates should not only be proficient
in English but also in the language medium opted by the candidate. He further
mentioned that all vacancies of PH candidate have been filled up in the Civil
Services Examinations in the recent past, where only Government scribes were
being allowed to PH candidate in the Civil Services (Main) Examination.
14. With regard to the provisions in the guidelines allowing the candidates to
choose the mode of taking examination in Braille or on computer or in large
print, allowing assistive devices like talking calculator etc. the
representative from UPSC stated that these rules not only involve logistical
issues but may also have the potential for
representations/complaints/litigations on the grounds of the alleged
unsatisfactory hardware / printout/ recording devices etc. Providing question
paper in Braille or in Computer in addition to the printed version is likely to
have involvement of multiple agencies and thereby impinge on the
confidentiality of question papers, which in turn could have adverse impact on
the sanctity and integrity of the examination process. 15. The representative
of UPSC drew the attention of Committee to the order of Hon’ble High Court of
judicature at Bombay dated 19.08.2014 in W.P. No. 5953 of 2014 in the matter of
Shri Sujit Shinde and another Versus UPSC and other. In this order, the Hon’ble
High Court has taken note of the fact that UPSC has justified its stand of
prescribing its maximum educational qualification which a scribe can possess.
In the Civil Services (Preliminary) examination which has an objective type
test, where the correct answer from 4 alternatives is required to be marked by
shading the appropriate circle therefore, a scribe should be able to read
Hindi/ English versions of the questions effectively. Therefore, a scribe who
is of graduate or undergraduate level can effectively assist the visually
challenged candidate.
16. The representative of UPSC desired to know as to whether the alternative
objective question in lieu of descriptive questions for hearing impaired person
is recommending or mandatory in nature. JS, DEPwD clarified that all the
provisions of the guidelines including para XV which deals with this aspect are
mandatory. 17. The member SSC stated that the examinations conducted by SSC are
mostly based on multiple choice question papers. They allow only Government
scribes through their exam centre coordinators. SSC was of the view that
allowing private scribes even for multiple choice answers would have impact on
the integrity of the examination process. SSC was in agreement with the
submission of UPSC relating to other issues such as fixation of criteria for
the scribe, provision for choice of taking examination in Braille, allowing
assistive devices etc.
18. Shri T.D. Dhariyal, former Dy. CCPD and present Consultant in the Office of
CCPD has intimated that the process of framing of policy guidelines for
conducting examination of PwD was initiated in 2001-02 in consultation with
Ministry of Human Resource & Development and DoPT. As both the agencies did not
issue any guidelines, O/o CCPD took up the issues based on number of
representations received by it. The stakeholders were of the view that there
should not be any criteria such as the qualification of the scribe should be
one class below the minimum required educational qualification for the
examination. After prolonged consultations the Commission was of the view that
no fixed criteria should be there for selection of scribe and the scribe is to
be for all class of PwD whose writing capacity or speed is affected.
Subsequently the recommendations were sent to the Ministry for framing of
guidelines.
19. Director, IPH submitted that it would be appropriate if UPSC on their own
analyse the scenario taking into account number of cases where scribes were
used, number of PwD selected using such scribes, qualification of scribes,
number of complaints received against such scribes etc. and submita detailed
justification for consideration of Committee.
20. Representative from Department of Higher Education submitted that the
Ministry of HRD on its own does not have expertise to comment on the relevant
aspects. He suggested that representatives from UGC, AICTE and CBSE may be
co-opted as members so as to make the deliberations of Committee more
meaningful.
21. Director, NIHH suggested that no criteria for the scribe should be
prescribed rather the invigilation process should be strengthen to take care of
any perceived malpractices during examination process.
22. After detailed deliberations, the following decisions were taken:-
i. The office of CCPD will submit a detailed documentation on framing of the
guidelines containing the range of issues raised on each aspects, how the
recommendations were finalised etc.
ii. UPSC will submit detailed justification for seeking modifications in the
guidelines taking into account number of cases where scribes were used, number
of PwD selected using such scribes, qualification of scribes, number of
complaints received regarding use of such scribes (both government and private)
etc.
iii. Representatives from UGC, AICTE and CBSE may also be co-opted as members
of the Expert Committee. Department of Higher Education will expedite the
process of nomination of these agencies.
iv. The following may be nominated to represent various class of PwD in the
Committee :-
CLASS OF DISABILITY
Visual Impairment : Nominated Members (i) Ms. Kanchan Pamnani(ii) Shri S.K.
Rungta, National Federation of Blind. Hearing Impairment : Nominated Members(i)
Mrs. Snigdha Sarkar, Secretary, ANWESHA(ii) Prof. Sandhya Limaye, Centre of
Disability Studies and Activities, Mumbai Locomotor Disabilities : Nominated
MemberShri Komal Kabra, Khalsa College Delhi University
Mental Impairment : Nominated MemberMs Nirmala Srinivasan
23. The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the chair. Minutes of the
Preliminary Discussion of Expert Committee to reviewthe Guidelines for
conducting examination for Pst held under theChairmanship of Secretary, DEPwD
on 13.04.2015 at 04:00 PM LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Shri Lov Verma, Secretary, DEPWD
........................................... in chairShri Awanish K. Awasthi,
Joint Secretary, DEPWDMs Archana Verma, Joint Secretary, DOPTShri R.K. Arora,
Additional Secretary, UPSCShri Sanjay Mehrishi, Joint Secretary, UPSCShri
Chetan Prakash Jain, Member, SSCDr. Dharmendra Kumar, Director, IPHDr. A.K.
Sinha, Director, AYJNIHHShri T.D. Dhariyal, Consultant, O/o CCPDShri Davinder
Pal Singh, Deputy Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human
Resource & DevelopmentShri D.K. Panda, Under Secretary, DEPWD
Source * : http://socialjustice.nic.in/pdf/rexpertcomm-g-DDIII18515.pdf
* DISCLAIMER : Original document inaccessible to print disabled. Machine OCR
result cursorily checked by a human more to provide gist rather than accuracy.
While transcription errors are regretted, please focus your energies to insist
that MSJE practices web accessibility.
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