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4.The issue of providing friendly environment to persons with disability soon found part of the judicial pronouncements by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in National Federation of Blind v. Union Public Service Commission & Ors., . The judgment gave the right to visually handicapped persons to compete on equal footing for job opportunities and the Government of India and Union Public Service Commission ( in short, 'UPSC' ) were directed to permit blind and partially blind eligible candidates to compete and write the civil services examination in Braille-script or with the help of scribe. The matter did not rest at this since further directions were issued to the Government of India to decide the question of providing preference / reservation to the visually handicapped persons in Group 'A' and 'B' posts in the Government and public sector undertakings expeditiously. The Supreme Court noted that the visually handicapped constitute the significant section of our society and as such it is necessary to encourage their participation in every walk of life. Some reservation had been provided by the Central Government for vacancies in Group 'C' and 'D' posts, but in order to consider the growing demand from the visually handicapped persons, the Ministry of Welfare, Government of India had directed Standing Committee for identification of jobs in various Ministries / Departments for such persons by an order dated 30.12.1985. The report was submitted by the Committee on October 31, 1986. The Committee prepared a comprehensive list of 416 categories in Group 'A' and 'B' posts. An office memorandum was issued on 25.11.1986 by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel and Training ( in short, 'DOPT' ) providing for preference to be given to the handicapped persons for these posts. This memorandum, however, remained on paper and even when the matter in National Federation of Blind's case (supra) was argued, it was pointed out that this office memorandum for 7 years had remained unimplemented. It is of importance to mention that the Committee had specified that the visually handicapped ( blind and partially blind ) are suitable for appointment for certain categories of Group 'A' and 'B' posts, which are mentioned in para 6 of the judgment. Towards the conclusion of the judgment, there were certain meaningful directions issued by the Supreme Court and it is best to set out the same by reproducing the paragraphs :-

The observations of the Union Public Service Commission as projected by Mr. V.K. Cherian in his above-quoted affidavit do not seem to be correct. After going through the list of the posts identified as suitable for visually handicapped (blind and partially blind) it is obvious that there are number of posts which are required to be filled through the civil services examination and other competitive examinations conducted by the Commission Group 'A' and 'B' posts in the category of Administrative Officers (Secretarial - Senior) and Administrative Officer (Secretarial - Junior) are necessarily to be filed as a result of civil services examination by the Union Public Service Commission. If some of the posts in the India Administrative Service and other Allied Services, as identified by the committee, can be filed from amongst the visually handicapped persons then we see no reason why they should not be permitted to sit and write the civil services examination. We make it clear that once recruited to the lowest level of the service the visually handicapped persons shall not be entitled to claim promotion to the higher posts in the service irrespective of the physical requirements of the jobs. If in the hierarchy of promotional posts it is found by the Government that a particular post is not suitable for the visually handicapped person he shall not have any right to claim the said post.

14. In the light of the above discussion we partly allow the writ petition and direct the Government of India and the Union Public Service Commission to permit the visually handicapped (blind and partially blind) eligible candidates to compete and write the civil services examination which is ordinarily held yearly by the Union Public Service Commission. We further direct that they shall be permitted to write the examination in Braille-script or with the help of a Scribe. There shall be no orders as to costs."