India's approach to disability rights evolved significantly, judiciary played pivotal role: SC

New Delhi, Sep 12 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday said the country's approach to disability rights evolved from a charity-based and medical model to a rights-based framework and underscored judiciary's "pivotal role" in the interpretation of statutory provisions.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said through its interpretation, the judiciary has "reframed" disability not merely as a medical condition but as a type of structural disadvantage, requiring active redressal, protection and inclusion within the constitutional framework.

It said the concept of disability exposes the gap between constitutional promises and lived reality.

"When legal systems treat disability as a medical problem requiring accommodation rather than a form of human diversity deserving equal participation, they expose their own weaknesses and limitations," it said.

The top court was acting on a plea seeking addressal to the systemic hurdles faced by persons with disabilities and ensuring enforcement of statutory safeguards.

"Rather than viewing disability as a deficit requiring correction, the law must recognise it as a lens that reveals the true nature of legal, social, and institutional frameworks, illuminating whether they embrace human diversity or create barriers that exclude certain members of society, i.e., those who have been discriminated against by providence or those who have suffered the disability factor during their lifetime," it said.

It said experiences of persons with disabilities demonstrate whether democratic institutions genuinely serve all citizens or whether they are designed around narrow assumptions about human capacity and participation.

The bench said the dearth of accessibility in physical spaces, digital platforms, information systems, procedural frameworks and public hiring denies persons with disabilities the constitutional guarantees of equal participation.

"When systems fail to prioritise accessibility from their inception, they reveal fundamental flaws in their conception of citizenship and equality," it said.

It said the lived experiences of persons with disabilities within legal systems serve as a litmus test for constitutional democracy, raising questions if the institutions were structured to facilitate meaningful participation by all citizens or whether they maintain barriers that effectively deny constitutional rights to persons with disabilities.

The bench referred to the framework, both international and domestic, dealing with the rights of persons with disabilities, particularly in the context of institutional care, accessibility, and community living.

"India's approach to disability rights has evolved significantly from a charity-based and medical model to a rights-based framework. This transformation has been shaped by statutory enactments, constitutional mandates, and progressive judicial interpretation," it said.

The bench referred to the provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD), 2016 and the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017.

"While the aforesaid statutory enactments provide the legislative foundation for disability rights, the Indian judiciary has played a pivotal role in their interpretation, consistently invoking the constitutional guarantees under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India," it said.

It noted the dignity of persons with disability, especially those institutionalised and forgotten, cannot be made contingent upon their perceived ability to integrate, perform or comply with dominant norms of independence.

"An equality framework premised on contribution or performance may be inadequate to secure their rights, especially when their exclusion is not incidental but embedded within institutional design," it said.

The bench said the danger lies in articulating inclusion only through the language of exception or achievement, rather than through structural reconstitution of public spaces, services and norms to affirm disability as a legitimate and constitutive part of human diversity.

"A truly inclusive constitutional vision must move beyond these binaries and recognise that the right to equality is not contingent on capacity but anchored in dignity, autonomy, and the right to belong, on equal terms, in every domain of life," it said.

The bench referred to several previous judgements of the apex court, including the one which held that discrimination against persons with disabilities violates Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution, and affirmed that right to dignity was intrinsic to the right to life. PTI ABA ABA AMK AMK