Dear friends, This is such a relevant issue for the blind law graduates. I have been personally working on this for quite some time now. I had a detailed discussion with Kanchan also on the subject some time back as what should a blind law graduate possess in order to be successful as a judge for we want to set a role model and not failures. In the recent past Jharkhand Public Service Commission also did that. I have a reply from High Court of Andhra Pradesh in which the Registrar of the AP Court specifically states that they have decided not to give reservation to Blind!
However, I would like to bring to your notice that Mr. MK Rastogi from AICB and I had argued this issue successfully some years back before a *Judges Colloquium* that was organised by HRLN and National Human Rights Commission jointly at New Delhi and was attended by several Chief Justices of High Courts and senior Justices from all over India. At that time Delhi High Court had not given any reservation to the Disabled people in an advertisement. In a lighter vein, Mr. Rastogi expressed before that colloquium that it is said that Law is blind and we are also blind so there is a co-relation between law and us and we are Bhai Bhai and that Blind would do well as judges and should be given reservation! Perhaps the trick worked! We had Justices like S. Ravinder Bhatt, SK Kaul and few others from Delhi High Court and next day we were so pleased to see that the newspaper carried Corrigendum to the earlier advertisement inviting applications for the posts of Civil Judges and this time it especially included that* 2 posts were reserved for the Blind*. This is also another hard fact that till date these posts are vacant! I am unclear as to Whether it is because of not many blind people contesting for it or because there are no competent blind candidates existing who are willing to accept the challenges of the post of a Judge!. I have been nurturing a desire to see first Indian Blind Judge, I have been in fact training one Mr. Pankaj Sinha ( a pass out of St. Stephens and LLB from Delhi University) here in Delhi. Lets see when that happens but I am so happy to see that Nandita has come up and challenged this situation there in Mumbai. Through this list I invite Nandita to also apply to Civil Judges positions lying vacant in Delhi whenever the advt is issued. Congratulations! and keep us informed on the list. warm regards SC Vashishth, ADVOCATE-Disability Rights at New Delhi Member-Advocacy Committee, AICB On 30/07/2008, Blind News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Blind lawyer fights for her right to be a judge > > Mayura Janwalkar > > Alleging violation of the constitutional right to equality, Nandita > Dubey-Tripathi, a visually challenged advocate, has moved Bombay High Court > after being > excluded from applying to the post of civil judge. > > Tripathi, a post-graduate in labour law, has been practicing before the > Nagpur bench of the High Court and has successfully argued over 600 cases. > > On February 25, 2005, the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) had > published an advertisement for the recruitment of civil judges. However, it > barred > visually challenged candidates from being considered for the post. > > In her application, Tripathi contested that the Persons with Disabilities > (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, > 1995, > allows three per cent reservation for the handicapped with one percent for > the visually challenged. > > However, Tripathi contended, that in direct violation of Article 14 (right > to equality), a visually challenged candidate was being denied the > opportunity > to compete with able bodied candidates. > > After hearing the case, Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice AP > Deshpande gave the government four weeks to reply to Tripathi's petition. > > In 1998, an administrative committee comprising of five senior judges of > high court had inferred that the Persons with Disabilities Act was not > applicable > to judicial services. The decision given by the committee was reinforced in > an order passed by the high court in 2004. > > > Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to > http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/invite/ > > Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: > http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm > Registration is now open! > > To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, > please visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in -- Warm regards, Subhash Chandra Vashishth Mobile : +91-11-9811125521 Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Registration is now open! To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
