Dear all,
I am pasting below a letter which mr. Santosh rungta has written to
the president of india today on behalf of all india disability
alliance.
Dated: 26.2.14
To
Hon'ble Dr. Pranab Mukherjee
President of India
Rashtrapati Bhawan,
New Delhi
Subject; Request for not promulgating the Ordinance on the Rights of
Persons with disabilities Bill 2014 pending in Rajya Sabha if so
advised by the Cabinet.
Sir,
We as an alliance of organization of representing different
disabilities including cross disabilities throughout the country, most
humbly wish to bring to your kind notice a very serious matter
relating to the Govt.'s proposal to recommend to your honour for
issuing an ordinance to give effect to the rights of persons with
disabilities Bill 2014 which is pending before the Standing Committee
of Rajya Sabha.
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment introduced the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities Bill in the Rajya Sabha in January 2014.
This Bill was deeply flawed on several counts like allowing
discrimination on the grounds of disability; retracting benefits which
the sector had won through advocacy and litigation over the years and
most importantly it failed to fulfil the mandate of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Since the
Bill had basic inherent negative and discriminatory provisions, the
large disability sector as well as Members of Parliament demanded for
its further examination and referral to the Standing Committee.
Consequently, the Chairman Rajya Sabha referred the Bill to the
appropriate committee. It is pertinent to mention here that this Bill
seeks to replace the existing law on the rights of persons with
disabilities namely the PWD Act 1995.
Even though no urgency was expressed or demonstrated in the passage of
the Disabilities Bill 2014, we are now encountering newspaper and
other reports which are stating that the Bill may be promulgated as
Ordinance. The fact that there is no urgency to enact the Bill, its
promulgation does not meet the requirements of Article 123 of the
Constitution. Furthermore, the Bill is under the consideration of a
House Committee and to promulgate as Ordinance a legislation which is
under the consideration of Parliament is a colourable exercise of
power and a fraud on the Constitution as laid down by the Supreme
Court of India in D C Wadhwa vs State of Bihar.
We are also urging your intervention because the promulgation of the
Ordinance will destroy all the benefits and entitlements that the
sector has obtained over the years. Disability Rights is not an
unoccupied field. The Persons with Disabilities (Equality of
Opportunity, Full Participation and Protection of Rights) Act 1995
already controls the area. If the Bill of 2014 is promulgated as
Ordinance, it cannot become operable unless the Act of 1995 is
repealed. The Act of 1995 has empowered a series of individual, bodies
and authorities to implement the statute; all these entities would
become dysfunctional if the Act of 1995 is repealed but there would be
no time to establish and render functional the new authorities because
an ordinance can remain operable for a maximum period of seven and a
half months without obtaining parliamentary approval. The enactment of
the Bill through the Ordinance route will obtain no benefit to the 13
new impairments, which the Government intends to include in the
Ordinance; but would create an enforcement vacuum even for the
disabilities already included in the 1995 Act. Thus an Ordinance
which is being promulgated to benefit us could cause us irreparable
harm. We therefore plead with you to not to accord your assent if an
Ordinance enacting the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill is
brought before you.
However if the Government promulgates an Ordinance to amend the
subsisting Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995 to include new
impairments in the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995, we have no
objection and would support the move. The Rights of Persons with
Disabilities Bill must be properly deliberated in Parliament, its very
many flaws rectified before it is made law.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
S.K. RUNGTA
Coordinator
CC: I) Hon'ble Prime Minister
II) Hon'ble Law Minister
III) Hon'ble Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment
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