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Journalism of Courage
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought a response of the Centre and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on a PIL claiming that the premier institution was not providing adequate reservation to persons with disabilities (PWD) in its postgraduate seats.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar issued a notice to the ministries of Social Justice and Health as well as AIIMS seeking their stand on the plea by an NGO which has alleged that there is ‘non-inclusiveness of PWD’ in the institute.
NGO Prhari Sahyog Association, in its petition filed through advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, has contended that AIIMS has failed to adopt the principle of inclusive education as it provided only one post-graduation seat out of total 435, advertised in 2018-19, to persons with disabilities when it was legally bound to reserve five per cent of the seats for PWD.
Bansal told the court that it amounted to the violation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act of 2016.
The petition has also claimed that the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) makes it mandatory for their member States to adopt the principle of inclusive education.
The NGO has urged the court to call for a status report from AIIMS indicating the efforts made by it to provide inclusive education to PWD as mandated under the Act.
It has also sought directions to the institute to provide reservation to PWD in its postgraduate (PG) sessions. Additionally, it has also sought directions to AIIMS to advertise and fill up the PG seats reserved for PWD which remained vacant in the January 2018, July 2019 and January 2019 sessions.
