SC Committee Seeks Feedback To Ensure Apex Court Accessible for Differently-Abled

An apex Committee formed to ensure that differently-abled people have equal access to the apex court has asked for feedback from lawyers, activists, and litigants through questionnaires

An apex court official stated that the Committee established under the chairmanship of Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, a judge on the Supreme Court, has made the questionnaires available online in order to collect insightful feedback and identify areas that requires improvement.

“The Committee is working with a specific mandate to examine accessibility aspects related to the Supreme Court of India, and these questionnaires are a step in achieving that goal. The questionnaires are intended to gather feedback on all aspects of accessibility,” the official stated.

The committee was formed in December 2022 by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud.

The court official claims that the second questionnaire is exclusively for experts in disability rights, whereas the first questionnaire seeks advice from people who have interacted with the Supreme Court of India, such as lawyers, litigants, staff, visitors, and law researchers.

The committee received a broad mandate last year to create and circulate a questionnaire for people with disabilities who visit the top court grounds, such as staff, advocates, litigants, and interns, in order to gauge the nature and severity of issues they encounter.

The committee is also responsible with creating a report on the accessibility audit, the findings of the survey of people with disabilities, and recommendations and plans to remove the barriers to access, according to a notice posted on the website of the Apex Court last year.

According to the notice, the committee members are Dr Sanjay Jain, professor at the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru, Shakti Mishra, a Supreme Court-nominated librarian, V Sridhar Reddy, an advocate nominated by the Supreme Court Bar Association, and Nilesh Singit, an independent accessibility expert nominated by the Centre for Disability Studies (NALSAR University of Law).

Ajay Agrawal, the Supreme Court’s additional registrar, is a member (secretary) of the committee. According to the notice, the committee will conduct an accessibility audit of the Supreme Court’s premises and operations, including both physical and technological accessibility.