RAJIVE RATURI versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

Citation: [2017] 12 S.C.R. 827 · Decided: 15-12-2017 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: A.K. SIKRI · Disposal: Disposed off

Cited by 6 judgment(s) · cites 3 · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

[2017] 12 S.C.R. 827 
RAJIVE RATURI 
v. 
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. 
(Writ Petition (Civil) No. 243 of2005) 
DECEMBER 15, 2017 
[A. K. SIKRI AND ASHOK BHUSHAN, JJ.] 
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 -
Visual~v 
disabled person - Proper and adequate access to public places -
Writ petition by a visually disabled perso11, seeking safe accessibility 
to roads and transport facilities - Enumeration of ten action points 
by the petitioner for providing proper access to public facilities to 
such perso11s - Held: Right of the disabled persons flows from the 
Constitution as also are statutorily recognised - Having regard 
thereto, no denial of the fact that visually impaired persons need to 
A 
B 
c 
be provided proper and safe access to roads and transport as well 
D 
as to buildi11gs, public places etc. - Without these facilities, moveme11t 
of such perso11s gets impaired and can be treated as infringement 
of their fundamental rights 11/Art. 19(l)(c), guaranteed to each and 
every citizen of this country - Therefore, the prayers niade not 
adversarial in nature - Ten action points enumerated by the 
petitioner, are now statutorily recognised under the Disabilities Act, 
2016 - It becomes a statutory obligation on the part of the Central 
Government as well as the State Governments to do the needful by 
the target dates - Union of India has been filing status reports from 
time to time in the form of affidavits by bringing on record the various 
measures taken by the Govemment to make the lives of such disabled 
persons as comfortable as possible - Though, Central Government 
has taken va/'ious measures, many State Governments have not 
respo11ded at all - In view thereof, issuance of important directions 
and deadlines set to make public places accessible to visually 
disabled- Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection 
of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 - Constitution of India 
- Arts. 32, 19(1)(c). 
Rights of visually impaired persons - At international level 
and national level - Discussed. 
827 
E 
F 
G 
H 
828 
A 
B 
c 
D 
E 
F 
G 
H 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
(2017) 12 S.C.R. 
Disposing of the petition, the Court 
HELD: 1.1 The right of the disabled persons not only flows 
from various international covenants to which India is a signatory, 
it is recognised as Constitutional right as well. There cannot be 
any dispute about the rights of the differently-abled persons, 
particularly those who have visual impairment, to provide them 
adequate access to all the facilities on the road as well as 
convenient access to transport facilities etc. Without these 
facilities, movement of such persons gets impaired and this can 
even be treated as infringement of their fundamental rights under 
Article 19{1){c) of the Constitution, which is guaranteed to each 
and every citizen of this country. In order to ensure that this 
right is exercised by visually disabled persons as well, it becomes 
the duty of the State and public authorities to lay down proper 
norms in respect of the built environment and public facilities 
i.e. roads, buildings, public places, transport {air, land and water) 
carriages etc. It is a well known fact that persons with visually 
impaired disability represent far more 'vulnerable section of 
society' and 'at-risk cases' vis-a-vis their present surroundings 
which also becomes evident from the well known fact that 
insurance companies charge a higher premium on insurance 
policies extended to the visually disabled as compared to the 
other persons. [Para 10) (843-B-E) 
1.2 Pursuant to Beijing Declaration, India enacted Persons 
with Disabilities {Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and 
Full Participation) Act, 1995. This Act, in no uncertain terms, 
brings out one of the important features thereof, namely, the 
creation of a barrier free built environment. The very Preamble 
to the Disabilities Act discloses that th.is Act was enacted by the 
legislature to fulfill its international obligation to enact a disability 
specific law nationally. Sections 44, 45 and 46 provided extremely 
specific and unambiguous guidelines for making the built 
environment, roads and transport facilities accessible for visually 
disabled persons. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 
2016 has repealed the earlier Disabilities Act, 1995. This 
Disabilities Act, 2016 lays down the provision relating to barrier 
free environment. Section 40 mandates the Central Government 
RAJNE R

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