‘Ensure every institution is equipped with ramp for students, employees with special needs’

Srinagar, Dec 19: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Srinagar has ordered the Directorate of School Education to ensure every institution within its jurisdiction is equipped with a “ramp” necessarily required for students with special needs as well as for employees in compliance with the mandate of the Supreme Court.

A bench of M S Latif Member (Judicial) issued the direction while dealing with a plea by a specially- abled lecturer who was transferred to a school lacking the facility of a “ramp”, which the aggrieved teacher termed as a violation of the Supreme Court directives and government’s guidelines.

In the very opening remarks in the order, the tribunal quoted Judith Heumann, who has said: "Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives - job opportunities or barrier-free buildings. It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair.

In his plea, Altaf Ahmad Dar, a lecturer in Environmental Science in the School Education Department ,has assailed the order dated May 27 whereby he was transferred from BHSS Hazratbal, Srinagar to BHSS Tailbal. His contention is that he is having more than seventy percent locomotor disability affecting both his lower limbs.

Dar has based his contention on several grounds including the one that in furtherance of the mandate of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, issued an Office Memorandum (OM) dated October 8, 2018, providing that a government employee with disability would be exempted from the routine exercise of transfer.

In view of the Memorandum, the J&K’s General Administration Department also issued an Office Memorandum dated February 20, 2024, by which instructions have been forwarded to all the Administrative Secretaries for information and strict compliance, he said.

Apart from this, he submitted that in terms of the guidelines of OM dated February 2, 2024 issued by the Government of India “it has been emphasised that employees with disabilities may be exempted from rotational transfers and may be allowed to continue at their present place of posting where they have achieved the desired performance”.

He submitted that travelling to BHSS Tailbal that too with crutches, causes severe physical strain to him. Moreover, there is no student in Environmental Science and he would remain idle in the institution, he said.

The aggrieved lecturer said that his representation made in May this Year was not being not considered by the Directorate of School Education Kashmir which constrained him to approach the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities J&K with his grievance.

The Commissioner, while treating his representation as a grievance under J&K Right of Persons with Disabilities Rule, 2021, requested the Director to examine the grievance and submit an action taken report to him, he said. In response to the aggrieved lecturer’s plea, the tribunal observed that competent authority ought to have considered his case on its merits and should have normally disposed of the representation.

“Even otherwise the school, in which the applicant has now been transferred, was mandatorily to have complied with the orders of the Government of India issued from time to time as well as the mandate of the Apex Court in the full Bench judgment with respect to Persons with Disabilities, the tribunal said.

The tribunal noted that apparently, the authorities are not giving any heed to such mandatory requirements in an educational institution where children with special needs are. “It is not understandable as to how if ever there is a child in the school, where the applicant has been transferred, having special needs, how he would be coping-up with his needs in absence of a required infrastructure”, it said.

“Undoubtedly, good education would include a very good atmosphere in an educational institution and accessibility for a child or an employee having special needs. I would like to sensitize the authorities as regards such needs, especially in educational institutions, as the same would be in conformity with Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” the Judicial Member said.

The Court issued notice on the plea that was accepted by AAG Satinder Singh, who has been granted four weeks' time to file detailed response without fail.

In the meanwhile, the tribunal asked the Director School Education Kashmir to take call on the aggrieved lecturer’s representation on its merits, keeping in view the observations of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities and in the light of the OMs issued by the Government of India from time to time. A speaking order be passed in consonance with the law and the mandate of the Apex Court, it said.

The Tribunal also directed its Registry to serve a copy of the order on Chief Secretary, Commissioner Secretary, School Education Department, Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education Department and Director, School Education Kashmir.