Supreme Court To Join NJDG Soon, Judgments Will Be Available In Free Text Search Portal With Accessibility Features : Justice Chandrachud

"We have introduced audio-captchas on the Supreme Court as well as High Court websites to ensure that visually impaired professionals face no hindrances in looking up the cause-list or the case status. We have also ensured that case files are readable and screen-reader friendly to make them accessible to persons with disabilities. The e-committee in collaboration with National Informatics Centre (NIC) has also created a judgment search portal accessible to persons with disability. Over seventy five lakh judgments of thee High Courts will be freely available for access. The visually challenged will not have to confront the unwillingness of private software developers to accommodate their needs", Justice Chandrachud said.

"With the Supreme Court of India poised to join the National Judicial data grid in the near future, all decisions of the Supreme Court will be available in a free text search portal which has accessibility built into it", he added.

Justice Chandrachud mentioned that through the initiative of the e-committee, the High Courts of Odisha and Kerala have adopted the paperless courts system. The digitization of files and court records will ensure that courts remain accessible to persons with disabilities.

Hope to see visually challenged persons becoming judges

He said that efforts have been taken to make the Indian judicial services more inclusive by removing barriers to the entry of persons with disability. He referred to the judgment in the caseVikash Kumar v. UPSC, which held that the exclusion of persons with over 50% visual impairment from qualifying for judicial services was not in consonance with the reasonable accommodation principle enshrined in the Persons of Disabilities Act, 2016.

"Of course, I will be the first to admit that much needs to be done to make our judiciary fully accessible to persons with disabilities. But I can say that at least we have taken the first steps in the right direction. My hope for the future, and a wish to the genie if I may, is that our country will see a counterpart of the visually challenged South African judge of the Constitutional court – Zak Yakoob – and many more in the High Courts and District Courts", Justice Chandrachud said.

Legal data bases not accessible to persons with disabilities.

The legal arguments that take place in a courtroom are often backed by substantive legal research, which forms an integral part of any legal professional. Legal databases form an ineluctable part of legal profession both for the academicians and professionals alike. However, most legal databases are inaccessible to persons with disabilities. The presence of access barriers such as unlabeled links, non-screen reader friendly web pages and pdf files, and the absence of alternative text descriptions for images on websites and blogs casts a chilling effect on the ability of persons with disabilities to produce quality scholarship and practice law. As a fraternity, our failure to provide for reasonable accommodation to persons with disabilities invalidates their everyday struggles and conveys a message to them that they are unwelcome in the legal profession. This in turn shapes their social reality within which they are constrained to lead their professional lives. The physical barriers are often symptomatic of an ableist attitudinal mindset.

Law schools should provide reasonable accommodation to persons with disability 

In the legal profession, law schools could take the lead in tackling ableist environments. If we truly believe that products of law schools have a role to play in guiding law and policy making, we need to address the failure of our law schools and institutions to provide reasonable accommodation to persons with disability. This affects their ability to assert themselves and contribute effectively to the legal field, resulting in the creation of a legal fraternity that is largely under-inclusive. The invisibility of the identity of persons with disabilities within the legal fraternity is an affront to the constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination enshrined in our Constitution.

It is often difficult for students with disabilities to avail internships with law firms, or participate in international and national moot court competitions. This is essentially because most of their energies are spent in trying to overcome and interact with an ableist structure around them in order to fulfil their everyday necessities. The lack of reasonable accommodation constrains Persons with Disabilities to shape their entire lives within the interstices of an ableist environment. This can stifle their aspirations.

IDIA has launched the IDIA Disability Access Programme, through which it sensitized, trained, and supported many students with disabilities. I am happy to note that multiple National Law Universities have collaborated with IDIA as part of this IDIA Disability Access Programme and are taking active steps to tackle accessibility barriers. I would particularly like to mention the Shamnad Basheer Accessibility Labs at NALSAR University of Law and NUJS, West Bengal. The labs are a laudable effort to carry forward Professor Shamnad Basheer's legacy by ensuring the creation of an enabling environment for students with disabilities.

Disability is a social construct

Ableism is systemic and rooted in the idea of preference for able-bodied and able-minded persons at the cost of discrimination and oppression of the persons with disabilities. Disability is a social construct. The notions of normalcy and intelligence are deeply rooted in centuries of prejudice against persons with disability. We need to understand the experiences of persons with disability in order to change our own attitudes towards disability.

Ableism is widely prevalent in our everyday lives. In popular culture, disability is often essentialized to draw cheap humor. Treating disability in a cavalier fashion dehumanizes and stigmatizes persons with disability. Ableism can also take the form of inappropriate and harmful language. Language shapes the way we think. It has the power to define the way we interact and value others. Inappropriate or derogatory language can make persons with disability uncomfortable and act as a barrier to their full and meaningful participation in all aspects of society. Therefore, a good starting point to fight against ableism is to unlearn our language by excluding the ableist slurs that often innocently slip from our mouths in everyday conversations.

Professor Shamnad Basheer Influenced Many People's Lives, Was A Change Maker Par Excellence: Justice DY Chandrachud