[AI] HC judgement on UPSC
All The following post from Kanchan failed to get to the list. Hence copying it below. Harish Kotian Quoting: I have had to type the entire order. Therefore a little late. Circulate it to all those who are giving the exams on Sunday. It is uploaded on the website of the Bombay High Court. I hope people realise how path breaking this judgement is. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 5953 OF 2014 Sujit Shinde Anr. .. Petitioners Vs. Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Anr. .. Respondents Ms.Ankita Singhania with Ms. Kanchan Pamnani for the petitioners Mr. V. Narayanan for respondent no. 1 Mr. Ashok Shetty with Mr. Ashok R. Varma and Mr. N. D. Sharma for respondent nos. 2 and 3 CORAM: MOHIT S.SHAH, C.J. M.S.SONAK, J. DATE: 19th August, 2014 P.C: (1) Both the petitioners herein are blind and are candidates at the Civil Services Examination, 2014 to be conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), respondent no.1 herein. Preliminary exam is on 24th August, 2014. (2) UPSC issued a notification dated 31st May, 2014 for a preliminary examination of the Civil Services Examination for recruitment to the Services and Posts mentioned in the advertisement. As regards the vacancies for which the notification was issued, it was stated as under: The number of vacancies to be filled on the result of the examination is expected to be approximately 1291 which includes 26 vacancies reserved for P.H. Category, i.e. 12 vacancies for LDCP, 2 Vacancies for B/LV and 12 Vacancies for the H.I. The final number of vacancies may undergo change after getting firm number of vacancies from Cadre Controlling Authorities. (3) Both the petitioners submitted their applications in response to the said advertisement. Preliminary examination is to be conducted on 24th August, 2014. The petitioners have made the following grievances in this petition which are reiterated at the hearing: a)Since the notification itself indicates that the number of vacancies to be filled in on the result of the examination is approximately 1291, the number of vacancies reserved for the persons with disability ought to have been notified as 39 @ 3% i.e. 13 vacancies for the blind or with low vision, 13 vacancies for persons with locomotor disability or cerebral palsy and 13 vacancies for persons with hearing impairment. It is submitted that by reserving only 26 vacancies for persons with disability, the respondents are committing breach of the statutory provisions in Section 33 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protections of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 hereinafter referred to as the Disability Act. b) The second grievance is about the Scribe to be permitted to appear at the examination. It is submitted that while the Guidelines contained in the office memorandum dated 26th February, 2013 issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Social Justice Empowerment, Department of Disability Affairs permit a candidate to engage a Scribe without any restrictions on educational qualification, marks scored, age or other restrictions, the proforma of the declaration in the advertisement provides the educational qualification of the Scribe as brought by the candidate should be higher than graduation. c) Thirdly, it is submitted that the general instructions on the notification regarding the time duration for blind candidates runs counter to the guidelines contained in the Office Memorandum dated 26th February, 2013. The said Memorandum provides for compensatory time of 20 minutes per hour of examination for persons who are making use of the scribe /reader/lab assistant but the general instructions in the advertisement provide that blind candidates will be allowed to write the examination with the help of scribe with extra time @ 10 minutes per hour. d) There are also other submissions regarding other a few issues arising in case of blind candidates appearing at such examination. (4)Taking first contention urged on behalf of the petitioners, the learned counsel for the petitioner has invited our attention to the provisions of section 33 of the Disability Act and the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Union of India and another vs. National Federation of the Blind and others [1] and the Office Memorandum dated 3rd December, 2013 issued by Government of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances
Re: [AI] HC judgement on UPSC
Dear List, Thank you Harish. Really a path breaking judgment by high court of Bombay in the case of upcoming UPSC exam in this weekend. Key points of this Order dated 19-08-2014. 1.The Respondents shall proceed on the basis that the respondents are required to reserve 3% of 1291 vacancies for persons with disability, 1% each for blind persons or persons with low vision, 1% each for persons with locomotor disability or cerebral palsy and 1% each for persons with hearing impairment. In other words, each category is entitled to have reservation of 13 vacancies aggregating to total 39 vacancies to be reserved for persons with disability, out of 1291 vacancies. 2.UPSC shall grant the candidates engaging the services of scribes to have additional 20 minutes per hour and necessary instruction shall be issued to all the examination centres immediately. 3.Persons with disabilities should be given the option of choosing the mode for taking the examinations i.e. in Braille or in the computer or in large print or even by recording the answers as the examining bodies can easily make use of technology to convert question paper in large prints, e-text, or Braille and can also convert Braille text in English or regional languages.” 4.UPSC shall publish a notice on its website indicating that candidates with low vision are at liberty to request for question papers with larger print or larger fonts or any other request as per the Guidelines. This shall be done immediately and UPSC shall also permit such candidates to make such request through emails. This order clearly mentioned about low vision persons and provision of large pint question paper. In the most of the online application forms there is no field as low vision and his/her need of format. In general all online application have VH candidate yes or no, percentage selection and need of scribe yes or no. As per this court order in future we can advocate to all exam authorities to add appropriate fields in their online application form for blind and low vision with mode for taking examination. Hats of to Kanchan Pamnani and her team for this breakthrough judgment. Download original court order from link https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8123992/UPSC%20wp5953_Bombay%20High%20Court%20order.pdf Word format of the Order https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8123992/UPSC%20wp5953_Bombay%20High%20Court%20order.docx Thank you Prashant Naik On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 4:20 PM, Kotian, H P hpkot...@rbi.org.in wrote: All The following post from Kanchan failed to get to the list. Hence copying it below. Harish Kotian Quoting: I have had to type the entire order. Therefore a little late. Circulate it to all those who are giving the exams on Sunday. It is uploaded on the website of the Bombay High Court. I hope people realise how path breaking this judgement is. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 5953 OF 2014 Sujit Shinde Anr. .. Petitioners Vs. Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Anr. .. Respondents Ms.Ankita Singhania with Ms. Kanchan Pamnani for the petitioners Mr. V. Narayanan for respondent no. 1 Mr. Ashok Shetty with Mr. Ashok R. Varma and Mr. N. D. Sharma for respondent nos. 2 and 3 CORAM: MOHIT S.SHAH, C.J. M.S.SONAK, J. DATE: 19th August, 2014 P.C: (1) Both the petitioners herein are blind and are candidates at the Civil Services Examination, 2014 to be conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), respondent no.1 herein. Preliminary exam is on 24th August, 2014. (2) UPSC issued a notification dated 31st May, 2014 for a preliminary examination of the Civil Services Examination for recruitment to the Services and Posts mentioned in the advertisement. As regards the vacancies for which the notification was issued, it was stated as under: The number of vacancies to be filled on the result of the examination is expected to be approximately 1291 which includes 26 vacancies reserved for P.H. Category, i.e. 12 vacancies for LDCP, 2 Vacancies for B/LV and 12 Vacancies for the H.I. The final number of vacancies may undergo change after getting firm number of vacancies from Cadre Controlling Authorities. (3) Both the petitioners submitted their applications in response to the said advertisement. Preliminary examination is to be conducted on 24th August, 2014. The petitioners have made the following grievances in this petition which are reiterated at the hearing: a)Since the notification itself indicates that the number of vacancies to be filled in on the result of
