Every Courtroom Should Be Disabled Friendly: Bombay HC [Read Order]

Heritage Conservation cannot impede disabled people’s access to court, said the bench.Justice GS Patel of the Bombay High Court made some significant observations while hearing a suit filed by one Harish Manilal Shah and asked the HC Registry to take note of the same.The defendant in the suit, Jayaben is 96 years old and is in a wheelchair. Justice GS Patel of the Bombay High Court made some significant observations while hearing a suit filed by one Harish Manilal Shah and asked the HC Registry to take note of the same. Needless to say, permission was granted but Justice Patel recorded his displeasure in the order asking the HC registry to “immediately place the matter before the committee or sub-committee concerned for its consideration as to how to implement wheelchair access to all court rooms in this building.” Noting that Jayaben “would have been subjected to an undeserved indignity in public view” if she were to be physically carried into the witness box which is on an elevated podium in his courtroom, Justice Patel made the following observations- “I was compelled to seek administrative permission to shift to Court Room No. Every court must, at a minimum, be wheelchair accessible.“ These directions are only befitting at this time with the Rights of persons with Disabilities Act coming into force last year and the Supreme Court’s direction to the States to follow the pro-disabled laws meticulously.