SC tells Centre to frame ‘proper guidelines’

The Supreme Court Thursday directed the Centre to frame "proper guidelines" to regulate and facilitate grant of a facility of a scribe to persons with disability in writing exams and highlighted "policy disconnect" between two ministries on the issue saying "left hand does not know what the right one is doing".

The apex court took note of the view of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) that a person with disabilities, other than benchmarked disabilities under the law, can also be provided with a scribe as the guidelines are not "exhaustive".

"This view of the nodal ministry has evidently not percolated to UPSC which, on the other hand, considers itself to be strictly bound, without deviation, from the rules specified by DoPT for the conduct of the CSE. UPSC has therefore specifically stated before this court that a candidate who does not fulfill the description of a person with benchmark disabilities would not be entitled to a scribe.

"These divergent views of two Central Ministries before the Court are symptomatic of a policy disconnect. We express our disquiet about the fact that, in a policy matter with profound consequences for India's disabled population, the left hand does not know what the right one is doing," said a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna. The top court issued a slew of disabled-friendly directions to MSJE on a plea of a UPSC's civil service aspirant, having neurological disorder ‘dysgraphia’ also known as a writer's cramp, who was denied facility of a scribe in exam on the ground that it can be provided only to persons with benchmark disabilities such as blind candidates and those with locomotor disability or cerebral palsy with an impairment of at least 40%.