Bombay High Court: The instant suo motu PIL was in pursuance of an earlier order of the Court from 10-07-2024, regarding the constitution of a State Advisory Board (“Board”) under the aegis of Section 66 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (“RPDA”).
The Division Bench of Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, CJ. and Amit Borkar, J., took on record the letter tendered by the Additional Government Pleader, addressed to him by the Deputy Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, Persons with Disabilities Welfare Department, stating that the Government would be taking 15 days’ time to constitute the State Advisory Board (“Board”) after the current assembly session was over (on 12-07-2024).
The Amicus Curiae tendered an order of the Supreme Court, dated 17-07-2023, before the Court to show that the State of Maharashtra had informed that the Board had been constituted. The Court however noted that the Board indeed had been constituted on 27-02-2018 via issuance of a Notification by the State Government, but due to vacancies of non-official members in the Board, it has been non-functional since 2020.
The Court referred to the Supreme Court decision of Exploitation of Children in Orphanages in State of Tamil Nadu v. Union of India, (2017) 5 SCC 578, wherein it was observed that “the rule of law includes adherence to parliamentary legislation by all concerned including the State Governments and the Union Government and it would be extremely unfortunate if the Governments voluntarily and knowingly flouted the provisions of law solemnly enacted by Parliament (…) laws solemnly enacted by Parliament cannot be insulted by putting hurdles in the effective functioning of these Commissions, such as by not appointing the Chairperson or Members.”
The State was thus directed by the Court to constitute the Board according to the provisions of Section 66 of the RPDA and shall be made functional within 30 days from 11-07-2024.
[High Court of Judicature at Bombay on its own motion v. Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, 2024 SCC OnLine Bom 2152, decided on 11-07-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the petitioner: Jamshed Mistry, Amicus Curiae with Ronita Bhattacharya Bector, Advocate
For the respondents: Anil C. Singh, Senior Advocate, Oorja Dhond, Aadarsh Vyas, S.K. Sonawane; Advocates [Respondent 1]
P.H. Kantharia, Government Pleader, Abhay L. Patki, Additional Government Pleader [Respondent 2]
Akshay P. Shinde, Advocate [Respondent 3]
Prashant P. Chavan, Ravindra Nathani, Reshmarani Nathani; Advocates [Respondent 4]
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