In Brief
This case addresses the rights of persons with disabilities (PwD) to examination accommodations when appearing in recruitment and competitive examinations. The petitioner, a person with focal hand dystonia and less than 40% disability, was denied scribe and compensatory time facilities by various examining bodies because these were restricted to persons with benchmark disabilities (40% or more). The Supreme Court held that fundamental rights under Articles 19 and 21 can be enforced against private entities and overrule the earlier Rajbir Singh principle. The Court directed that all accommodations must be extended uniformly to all persons with disabilities based on functional capacity to write, not percentage thresholds, and ordered the Ministry of Social Justice to revise guidelines and establish grievance redressal mechanisms to prevent discrimination and ensure reasonable accommodation under the RPwD Act, 2016.
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