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“A disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).”
In a report prepared by the research wing of apex court, it revealed that there is clear insufficient infrastructure in the districts courts across the country. For instance, almost every district court in the country do not offer ramps and over 70 per cent of courts do not provide wheelchairs, the report further added.
Report points out not even 5 per cent of the districts courts in the country offer personal assistant for the visual and hearing disability persons, including lawyers. These assisting persons, sign language interpreters besides there is no proper infrastructure in most of the court rooms.
The report was presented on 26th November, 2023. The report reckon the judicial infrastructure as Residential Accommodations for Judges, washrooms for all genders, drinking water, seating or waiting facilities for litigants, waiting rooms for under-trails etc.
It said, Judicial infrastructure ought to be inclusive and enabling in order to ensure that persons who are disabled and need compensative skills to go about their daily lives, are able to access courts and seek redressal of their grievances.
Quoting from the citations, the report said: Disabled Rights Group v. Union of India85 where the Supreme Court observed that:
“12. …A disability is only actually a disability when it prevents someone from doing what they want or need to do. A lawyer can be just as effective in a wheelchair, as long as she has access to the courtroom and the legal library, as well as to whatever other places and material or equipment that are necessary for her to do her job well…”
The Supreme Court acknowledged this vital aspect in All India Judges Association v. Union of India as:
“12.2. We must further ensure that all our court complexes are conducive and friendly for the differently-abled and towards this end, the court complexes must have certain features for the benefit of the vulnerable persons such as persons with disability or visually impaired persons. We have to move from disabled friendly buildings to workable and implementable differently-abled friendly court infrastructure. Ramps for such categories of persons must be operable, feasible, tried and tested. Such ramps should definitely have steel railings and handles. The court infrastructure must also keep in view the accessibility for visually impaired persons and, therefore, court complexes must have tactile pavements and signage in braille for the benefit of visually impaired citizens…”
You can find the entire report in Supreme Court website. https://main.sci.gov.in/
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