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The Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, had issued a notice to the government of Delhi about the petition filed by disabled wheelchair- bound Disability Rights activist, Nipun Malhotra. The petition is filed for seeking the Court’s directions to prevent the state from procuring 2000 non-disabled-friendly public transport buses.
However, the bench, which also included Justice Sanjiv Khanna, refused to issue a stay order against the Delhi government to obtain these buses. In its petition, Malhotra challenged the order of October 22, 2018, of the Delhi High Court (HC) that had rejected his PIL. While
defining HC's order as a misinterpretation of the law, Malhotra alleged that the court had overlooked the accessibility rights of the disabled and the elderly community, as laid down under Article 14, Article 15, Article 19 and Article 21 of the Constitution of India and Section 41 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
The petitioner requested directions from the government of Delhi and its transport department to take immediate measures to carry out a study with representatives of the disabled community for the purchase of disabled friendly, accessible low-floor public transport buses, and to mandatory involve persons with disability in policy decisions, such as purchase of public transport, which affects people with disabilities.
Malhotra cited the decisions of the Apex Court in the cases of Rajive Raturi v. Union of India and Jeeja Ghosh v. Union of India. Advocate Jai A. Dehadrai, assisted by Advocate Siddharth Arora represented the Petitioner and contended that the HC has premised its judgment on an erroneous interpretation of the provisions of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act which lays down that only 10% of public transport should be accessible. The bench also denied listening to the private/successful bidder - Antony Road Transport, who appeared as the caveat Party.
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