The Delhi high court on Tuesday i.e. 19th November 2019 sought a response of the centre and the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on a PIL claiming that the institution was not providing adequate reservation to persons with disabilities in its PG seats.
A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar issued a notice to the ministries of social justice and health as well as AIIMS seeking the stand of theirs on the plea by an NGO which has alleged that there is non-inclusiveness of Persons with disabilities in the institute.
The petition was filed by NGO Prhari Sahyog Association, through the advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, has said that AIIMS has failed to adopt the principle of inclusive education as its provided only one PG seat out of total 435, advertised in 2018 to 2019, to persons with disabilities when it was legally bound to reserve 5% of the seats for Persons with Disabilities.
Advocate Bansal told the court that it amounted to the violation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016. The petition also claimed that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities makes it compulsory for their member states to adopt the principle of inclusive education.
The NGO urged the court to call for the status report from AIIMS indicating the efforts made by it to provide inclusive education to Persons with Disabilities as mandated under the act.
It also sought directions to the institute to provide reservations to Persons with Disabilities in its PG sessions. Additionally, it also sought directions to AIIMS to advertise and fill up the PG seats reserved for Persons with Disabilities which remained vacant in the January 2018, July 2019 and January 2019 sessions.