Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Justice Sunanda Bhandare Foundation vs U.O.I on 3 December, 2024
Author: Hrishikesh Roy
Bench: Hrishikesh Roy
ITEM NO.26 COURT NO.4 SECTION PIL-W
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 116/1998
JUSTICE SUNANDA BHANDARE FOUNDATION Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
U.O.I. & ORS. Respondent(s)
(IA No. 134118/2018 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS
IA No. 10/2015 - DIRECTIONS
IA No. 14/2017 - DIRECTIONS
IA No. 13/2015 - DIRECTIONS
IA No. 93954/2018 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.
IA No. 11/2015 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.)
WITH
C.A. No. 11938/2016 (XIV-A)
(IA No. 130117/2018 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS)
Date : 03-12-2024 These matters were called on for hearing today.
CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HRISHIKESH ROY
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S.V.N. BHATTI
For Petitioner(s) Mr. Colin Gonsalves, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Ali Qambar Zaidi, Adv.
Mr. Satya Mitra, AOR
Ms. Manali Singhal, Adv.
Mr. Santosh Sachin, Adv.
Ms. Shreya Singhal, Adv.
Ms. Aanchal Kapur, Adv.
Mr. Deepak Singh Rawat, Adv.
Mr. Tejasvi Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Ambar Qamaruddin, AOR
For Respondent(s) Mr. Prashant Kumar, AOR
Mr. D. S. Mahra, AOR
Mr. Gulshan Kumar Bajwa, AOR
Mr. Nirnimesh Dube, AOR
Mr. Arjun Garg, AOR
Signature Not Verified
Ms. Sansriti Pathak, A.A.G.
Digitally signed by
NITIN TALREJA
Date: 2024.12.05
Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR
16:45:32 IST
Reason: Mr. Manish Chaubey, Adv.
1
Mr. Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, AOR
Ms. Sushma Suri, AOR
Mr. Shibashish Misra, AOR
Mr. Sunil Fernandes, AOR
Mr. Praveen Swarup, AOR
Mr. T. V. George, AOR
Mr. Shree Pal Singh, AOR
Ms. Rajkumari Banju, AOR
Mrs. Anil Katiyar, AOR
Mr. Guntur Prabhakar, AOR
Mr. Abhishek Chaudhary, AOR
Mr. C. K. Sasi, AOR
Ms. Meena K Poulose, Adv.
Mr. Vikramjit Banerjee, A.S.G.
R.r.rajesh, Adv.
Sunita Sharma, Adv.
Amit Sharma, Adv.
Rekha Pandey, Adv.
Saransh Kumar, Adv.
Dr. N. Visakamurthy, AOR
Mr. S. D. Singh, Adv.
Ms. Shweta Sinha, Adv.
Mr. Ram Kripal Singh, Adv.
Ms. Meenu Singh, Adv.
Mr. Siddharth Singh, Adv.
Ms. Bharti Tyagi, AOR
Mr. Ashok Mathur, AOR
Mr. Abhijit Sengupta, AOR
Mr. Ramesh Babu M. R., AOR
Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, AOR
Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR
Ms. Limayinla Jamir, Adv.
Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv.
Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv.
Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv.
Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, AOR
Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR
Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR
Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv.
Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv.
Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, AOR
2
Ms. Diksha Rai, AOR
Ms. Apurva Sachdev, Adv.
Mr. Piyush Vyas, Adv.
Ms. Purvat Wali, Adv.
Mr. Vikramjeet Banerjee, A.S.G.
Mr. R Bala, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR
Ms. Sunita Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Sunanda Shukla, Adv.
Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv.
Mr. Prashant Rawat, Adv.
Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR
Ms. Mythili S, Adv.
Ms. G. Indira, AOR
Mr. P Gandepan, Adv.
Mr. Ashwini Kumar, Adv.
Ms. Rajani Ohri Lal, AOR
Mr. Manoj Ranjan Sinha, Adv.
Mr. Vishal Agrawal, Adv.
Mr. Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, AOR
Mr. Anuvrat Sharma, AOR
Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, AOR
Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, Adv.
Mr. Sarvjit Pratap Singh, Adv.
Mr. Jagjit Singh Chhabra, AOR
Mr. G. Prakash, AOR
Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR
Mr. Piyush Beriwal, Adv.
Ms. Kanu Agrawal, Adv.
Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv.
Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Adv.
Ms. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv.
Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv.
Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv.
Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Rajesh Singh Chauhan, Adv.
Mr. Harish Pandey, Adv.
Mr. Shashwat Parihar, Adv.
Mr. Vineet Singh, Adv.
Mr. K. V. Mohan, AOR
Mr. Anil Shrivastav, AOR
M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, AOR
3
Mr. R. Sathish, AOR
Mr. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, AOR
Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna, AOR
Ms. Pragati Neekhra, AOR
M/S. K J John And Co, AOR
Ms. Diva Singh, Adv.
Mr. Devendra Singh, AOR
Mr. Avinash Poddar, Adv.
Mr. Ankit, Adv.
Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR
Mr. Satish Vig, AOR
Mr. Ashok Kumar Singh, AOR
Mrs. D. Bharathi Reddy, AOR
Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR
Mr. Daniel Lyngdoh, Adv.
Mr. T.k.nayak, Adv.
Ms. Marbiang Khongwir, Adv.
Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, AOR
Ms. Anubha Dhulia, Adv.
Ms. Ankeeta Appanna, Adv.
Mr. Surjendu Sankar Das, AOR
Mr. Harshit Dhamija, Adv.
Mr. Narendra Kumar, AOR
Mr. Bhupendra Pratap Singh, D.A.G.
Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR
Mr. Shashank Shekhar, Adv.
Mr. Siddhant Sharma, AOR
Mr. Prafull Bhardwaj, Adv.
Mr. Srisatya Mohanty, Adv.
Mr. Srisata Mohanty, Adv.
Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR
Mr. Shreyas Awasthi, Adv.
Mr. Abhijit Pattanaik, Adv.
Mr. Shantanu Sagar, AOR
Mr. Anil Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Gunjesh Ranjan, Adv.
Mrs. Divya Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Vaibhav Jain, Adv.
Mr. Chinmay Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Nishant Ramakantrao Katneshwarkar, AOR
4
Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv.
Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv.
Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR
Mr. Akshay Amritanshu, AOR
Ms. Drishti Saraf, Adv.
Ms. Pragya Upadhyay, Adv.
Ms. Swati Mishra, Adv.
Ms. Suveni Bhagat, AOR
Mr. Anando Mukherjee, AOR
Mr. Shwetank Singh, Adv.
Mr. Vishnu Shankar Jain, AOR
Mr. Tanmaya Agarwal, Adv.
Mr. Wrick Chatterjee, Adv.
Ms. Aditi Agarwal, Adv.
Mr. Sravan Kumar Karanam, AOR
Ms. Tayade Pranali Gowardhan, Adv.
Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR
Mr. Rahul Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Aryan Srivastava, Adv.
Mr. Raghvendra Kumar, AOR
Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR
Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR
Ms. Aswathi M.k., AOR
Mr. T. R. B. Sivakumar, AOR
Mr. K. V. Vijayakumar, AOR
Mr. Sahil Bhalaik, AOR
Mr. Tushar Giri, Adv.
Mr. Siddharth Anil Khanna, Adv.
Mr. Ritik Arora, Adv.
Mr. Shivam Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Gowtham Polanki, Adv.
Ms. Gulshan Jahan, Adv.
Mr. Jayant Mohan, AOR
Ms. Adya Shree Dutta, Adv.
Mr. Aravindh S., AOR
Mr. Abbas B, Adv.
Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR
Mr. Vikramjit Banerjee, A.S.G.
Ms. Snidha Mehra, Adv.
Mr. Nishesh Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Aaditya Dixit, Adv.
5
Mr. Saransh Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Amrish Kumar Sharma, Aor, Adv.
Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR
Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv.
Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv.
Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR
Mr. Sahil Bhalaik, AOR
Mr. Tushar Giri, Adv.
Mr. Siddharth Anil Khanna, Adv.
Mr. Ritik Arora, Adv.
Mr. Shivam Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Gowtham Polanki, Adv.
Ms. Gulshan Jahan, Adv.
Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR
Mr. Indrajit Prasad, Adv.
Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv.
Ms. G. Indira, AOR
Mr. P Gandepan, Adv.
Mr. Ashwini Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Arjun D Singh, Adv.
Ms. Ankita Sharma, AOR
Mr. Aravindh S., AOR
Mr. Abbas B, Adv.
Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, AOR
Ms. Aswathi M.k., AOR
Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR
Mr. Piyush Beriwal, Adv.
Ms. Kanu Agrawal, Adv.
Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv.
Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Adv.
Ms. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv.
Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv.
Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv.
Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Rajesh Singh Chauhan, Adv.
Mr. Harish Pandey, Adv.
Mr. Shashwat Parihar, Adv.
Mr. Nishant Ramakantrao Katneshwarkar, AOR
Mr. Guntur Prabhakar, AOR
6
Mr. Shree Pal Singh, AOR
Mr. Rahul Kaushik, AOR
Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR
Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv.
Mr. T. R. B. Sivakumar, AOR
Ms. Radhika Gautam, AOR
Mr. Tanmaya Agarwal, AOR
Mr. Shwetank Sailakwal, Adv.
Mr. Wrick Chatterjee, Adv.
Mrs. Aditi Agarwal, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
1. The matters pertain to implementation of the measures by the State Government under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (for short, the “Act”). Various orders have been passed in these proceedings particularly on 06.03.2020 when compliance affidavits were ordered to be filed by the States on the measures implemented under the Act.
2. Thereafter, the matters were taken up from time to time and finally on 20.09.2024, the following order was passed:
“1. On 19.01.2024, when this case was listed, the Court recorded the status of the response by the respective States and Union Territories with regard to implementation of the provisions of the Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, which statute now stands replaced by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
2. It is pointed out that some of the States and the Union Territories have fully complied with their obligations under the said Act and have filed their compliance affidavit. But few others have not done so.
Or if they have done, compliance affidavit(s) have not been filed or furnished.
73. The concerned affidavit(s) of the respective States and the Union Territories whether filed earlier or not, should be furnished to Ms. Manali Singhal, learned counsel for the petitioner(s). This should be done within 4 weeks from today by all the respective Standing Counsel for the States and the Union Territories. Thereafter, the counsel should prepare a chart and file the same before the Court indicating those, who are yet to comply with the Court’s directions as ordered on 25.04.2017. Ms. Manali Singhal’s e-mail id ([email protected]) is noted in this order for convenience of the respective counsel for the States and Union Territories.”
3. The affidavits of the concerned States and the Union Territories have since been collated by Ms. Manali Singhal, learned counsel for the petitioner and the present position is reflected in a summary chart, showing the non-compliance of the provisions, under the Act by few States/Union Territories.
4. The chart is extracted hereinbelow for ready reference:
SUMMARY CHART ON BEHALF OF THE PETITIONER SHOWING NON COMPLIANCE OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, 2016 Provisions of the RPWD ACT 2016 Sr States/UT Not Complied Andaman and Nicobar Islands (UT) (vide compliance affidavits
1. Fully Complied dated 16.08.17, 05.08.19, 09.08.19, 12.09.19, 13.11.19, __.3.24) Andhra Pradesh (vide compliance affidavits 2 Fully Complied dated 04.04.18, 07.01.19, 23.08.19, 14.3.24) 3 Arunachal Pradesh Sections 23 (All departments have been intimated for complying with (vide compliance affidavits the provisions of the Act), 26-30 8 (action is being taken/initiated), 31-35(action is being taken/initiated), 36-37 (matter being taken up with concerned department), 40-
44(action is being
dated 07.01.19, 11.11.24) taken/initiated), 46-48(action is
being taken/initiated), 72
(action is being
taken/initiated), 85, 88 (action is being taken/initiated), 101 (draft rules framed) Assam (vide compliance affidavits 4 dated 7.11.17, 07.01.19, Sections 14, 21, 22, 35 17.08.19, 17.09.19, 18.01.20) Bihar (vide compliance affidavits
5 dated 09.11.17, 10.05.18, Fully Complied 11.01.19, 08.03.19, 06.08.19, 18.3.24) Chandigarh (UT) (vide compliance affidavits 6 Sections 21, 26, 35, 37 dated 02.11.17, 28.12.18, 10.12.19) Chhattisgarh (vide compliance affidavits 7 Sections 21, 37, 101 dated 17.08.17, 14.08.19, 07.01.20) Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu (UT) (vide 8 Sections 66,70, 84, 85, 88, compliance affidavits dated 04.01.19, 06.3.24) National Capital Territory of Delhi (UT) (vide compliance affidavits dated 9 Sections 28, 38, 66 16.08.17, 07.01.19,06.02.20, 03.06.20) Goa (vide compliance affidavits Sections 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 23, 10 dated 24.08.17, 08.02.18, 30, 37, 38, 53, 72,79, 83, 85, 19.08.19,10.02.20) 88 9 Gujarat 11 (vide compliance affidavits Sections 15, 33, 37, 43 dated 25.10.17, 20.09.19, 30.07.24) Haryana (vide compliance affidavits 12 Sections 18, 32, 33, 35, 36-37, dated 01.11.17, 26.04.18, 38, 59, 70, 88 07.01.19, 09.08.19, 07.01.20) Himachal Pradesh 13 (vide compliance affidavits Sections 42, 43 dated 03.01.19, 04.03.24) Jammu and Kashmir 14 (vide compliance affidavits Only meagre compliance to the dated 13.11.17, 03.01.19, RPWD Act 2016 shown 06.03.20) Jharkhand 15 (vide compliance affidavits Sections 21, 26, 37 dated 22.01.18, 16.08.18, 04.02.19, 17.08.24) Karnataka (vide compliance affidavits 16 dated 14.08.17, 06.08.18, Fully Complied 03.08.19, 05.01.19, 20.11.19, 15.3.24) Kerala 17 (vide compliance affidavits Sections 72,88 dated 02.08.17, 02.09.19, 02.03.20) Lakshadweep 18 (vide compliance affidavits Fully Complied dated 19.12.17, 25.04.18, 18.2.20) Ladakh Sections 3-11, 12-15, 16-18, 20, 19 (vide compliance affidavit 22-23, 24-26, 28- 30, 31-37, 39, dated 11.3.24) 41-48,66,70, 72, 88 Madhya Pradesh 20 Sections 3-14, 18-32, 34, 37, 39- (vide compliance affidavits 42, 45-49, 50-55 dated 24.06.18, 02.01.19) Maharashtra 21 (vide compliance affidavits Sections 35, 88, 101 dated 11,01.19, 05.08.19, 04.3.24) 10 Manipur 22 (vide compliance affidavits Sections 85 dated 07.01.19, 19.10.22) Meghalaya 23 (vide compliance affidavits Sections 37 dated 31.07.17, 14.12.18, 28.03.24) Mizoram Sections 3-5, 7-10,12, 13, 15, 24 (vide compliance affidavits 18, 20, 21, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, dated 20.07.17, _.03.18, 35, 38, 39, 42-44, 48, 88 31.07.19, 19.02.20) Nagaland 25 (vide compliance affidavits Section 35, 37, 88 dated 16.01.19, 03.12.19, 18.08.21) Odisha 26 (vide compliance affidavits Fully Complied dated 16.11.17, 07.01.19, 27.11.19) Puducherry (vide compliance affidavits 27 dated 12.07.17, 03.01.19, Fully Complied 10.02.20, 03.03.20, 24.04.24) Punjab (vide compliance affidavits 28 dated 3.11.17, 24.04.18, Section 79, 83 13.12.18, 25.09.19, 06.12.19) 29 Rajasthan Sections 21 (vide compliance affidavits dated 24.01.18, 03.03.20, 08.11.24) Sikkim 30 (vide compliance affidavits Sections 37, 43 dated 06.11.17, 08.01.19, 24.07.20, 28.11.24) Tamil Nadu (vide compliance affidavits 31 dated 24.07.17, 27.12.18, Fully Complied 29.11.19, 21.07.20, 19.03.24) 11 Telangana 32 (vide compliance affidavits Section 32 dated 17.10.17, 18.04.24) Tripura 33 (vide compliance affidavits Sections 21 dated 04.09.17, 05.01.19, 14.08.19, 15.03.24) Uttar Pradesh (vide compliance affidavits 34 dated 10.08.17, 14.08.18, Fully Complied 04.01.19, 24.01.20, 13.07.20, 09.11.24) Uttarakhand (vide compliance affidavits 35 dated 19.01.18, 15.09.18, Fully Complied 07.01.19, 11.04.19, 04.02.20) West Bengal 36 Sections 35, 36, 37, 38, 42, 53, (vide compliance affidavits 57, 59, 84, 85, 88 dated 03.08.17)
5. In course of today’s deliberation, it is noted that there is no participation by the learned counsel from the States/Union Territories of Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
6. The chart indicates that Andaman & Nicobar Island, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Lakshadweep, Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, have fully complied with the provisions of the Act. For those States which have failed to comply partly, the deficient measures are indicated in the chart section-wise. The learned counsel representing these States and Union Territories accordingly assure that necessary steps for full compliance of the provisions of the Act will be done and the process would be supervised.
7. In her turn, Ms. Manali Singhal, learned counsel for the 12 petitioner submits that the States/Union Territories should have a designated Nodal Officer to be nominated by the Chief Secretary, to ensure complete compliance with the provisions of the Act.
8. Having regard to the above, the deficient States/Union Territories are granted time until 17.02.2025 to file their respective response/affidavits, on the further steps that have been taken for complete compliance of the provisions of the Act. To ensure that the process is effective, the Chief Secretary of each State/Union Territory will designate a senior officer, to supervise the process of compliance of the provisions of the Act, within their respective jurisdiction.
9. Advance copy of the response/affidavits be furnished to Ms. Manali Singhal, learned counsel, appearing for the petitioner.
10. The Registry to forward a copy of this order to all the Chief Secretaries of the States and the Union Territories.
11. List on 17.02.2025.
(NITIN TALREJA) (KAMLESH RAWAT) ASTT. REGISTRAR-cum-PS ASSISTANT REGISTRAR 13