Delhi High Court: The present petition was in the nature of Public Interest Litigation filed under Article 226 of the Constitution seeking issuance of a Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ/order/direction to respondents directing them to formulate a Committee and the Terms of Reference of the Committee must include drafting up and implementing of a Nationwide Plan to impart “skill learning and vocational training” to children with special needs starting from the age group of 7-17 years and to persons with special needs, the Division Bench of Satish Chandra Sharama, C.J., and Tushar Rao Gedela, J.*, opined that the grievances raised in the present petition, had been sufficiently and aptly addressed by respondents through their various plans and schemes and the same was also concurred and reiterated by petitioner’s counsel that petitioner was fully satisfied with the action plan of respondents.
Background
Petitioner, a class XII student in Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram was an active and a responsible member of the community and in the course of her school curriculum and daily life, petitioner had noticed that there were many Children with Special Needs (‘CWSN’) alongside her, who were intellectually impaired and/or suffering from autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy or suffering from other forms of disabilities, who had the inability to garner skills needed for daily living and due to the same they were unfortunately phased out of the system and were also unable to independently, financially or otherwise, take care of themselves.
Petitioner submitted that even after passing of substantial time from G. Hema Gowri v. Union of India, W.P. (C) No. 2953 of 2012 dated 14-10-2019, whereby this Court had directed respondents to “consider forming a committee and assign the work to such Expert Committee to draft and implement a nationwide plan to impart skill learning and vocational training to children with special needs starting from the age group of 7-17 years and to the persons with special needs, especially to those who were intellectually challenged/specially abled and to place such children/persons in gainful employment”, no such committee had been formulated, let alone a specific policy in this regard being drafted, as a result of which, intellectually challenged CWSN were at a severe loss with respect to their financial independence and living with dignity.
Analysis, Law, and Decision
The Court noted that the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, implemented the National Action Plan (‘NAP’) for Skill Training of the PwDs in the age group of 18-59 (working age group) to enhance their employability both in public and private sector and the scheme was applicable to all categories of Disabilities including persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Intellectual Disability as covered under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (‘the Act’). The Court observed that the implementation of the programme lies with the respective State Governments in collaboration with the Union Ministries and as such the implementation of the policies was effectively in the domain of the Government of Delhi.
Respondent 3, Government of Delhi provided a detailed set of steps undertaken and the strategic road map to be followed in future:
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Admission of Children with Disabilities;
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Reservation in admission process of Children with Disabilities;
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Services of Trained (i) Graduate Teacher (TGT), (ii) Special Education Teachers (SETs), and (iii) Resource Person (RP) for CWSN;
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Screening and Identification of CWSN;
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Educational Program Planning and Preparation of Individualized Education Plan;
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Camps for Assessment and Distribution of Aids & Appliances;
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Assessment of Children with Intellectual Disability;
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Assessment of Children with Specific learning disabilities;
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In-Service Hands-on Cross Disability Training of Special Education Teachers;
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Training of General Educators and Orientation of Educational Administrators;
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District level &State Level Celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities;
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Provision of Braille Books is made available for all children with Blindness;
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Financial Assistance to CWSN, etc.
The Court noted that the Government of Delhi apart from various policies had also issued a notification dated 01-09-2023 directing the Heads of Schools of the all the schools of Directorate of Education (‘DOE’) to ensure that the Special Educators (Primary) posted in the school should prepare and implement the illustrative time table in respect of CWSN, enclosed with the said notification. The Court thus opined that the grievances raised in the present petition, had been sufficiently and aptly addressed by respondents through their various plans and schemes and the same was also concurred and reiterated by petitioner’s counsel that petitioner was fully satisfied with the action plan of respondents.
The Court thus directed respondents to scrupulously adhere to and implement the policies in letter and spirit and in all earnest, with a timely reassessment of the same to counter any grievances or challenges, if any so arises, in future.
[Kanika Gupta v. Union of India, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 7173, decided on 03-11-2023]
*Judgment authored by: Justice Tushar Rao Gedela
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioner: Anshumaan Sahni, Advocate
For the Respondents: Monika Arora, CGSC; Satyakam, ASC; Subrodeep Saha, Yash Tyagi, Advocates
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