Visually Impaired Litigants Entitled To Receive Court Documents In Their Preferred Means Of Communication/ Braille Script: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi government to make necessary arrangements for providing the court documents in a readable language to visually impaired in all cases wherever the circumstances so warrant.

Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta observed that the right to access to justice includes the right to receive documents to which the parties are legally entitled in the language and means of communication decipherable by them.

"On a clear reading of Section 12 of the RPwD Act, 2016 it can be seen that a positive duty has been cast upon the appropriate government under sub-section 4 to ensure that all public documents are in accessible formats. Further it is mandated to make available all necessary facilities and equipment to facilitate recording of testimonies, arguments or opinion given by persons with disabilities in their preferred language and means of communication," the Court added.

The Court was dealing with an anticipatory bail plea filed by a man accused of raping a 22 year old woman. As per allegations, both prosecutrix and petitioner were blind and developed good friendship in 2018.

The petitioner got job in 2019 and in March, 2019 he hired a rented accommodation in city's GTB Nagar. As per the allegations, the petitioner had called the complainant at his rented accommodation and asked her to stay as he was not feeling well and thereafter tried to forcefully indulge and have sex with her. The complainant denied the same. However, on another day, the petitioner had put sindoor on her head and established physical relations.

While the Court allowed the plea, the counsel appearing on behalf of the complainant had prayed that a copy of the order be provided in the readable (Braille) script to her.

"In the present case, both the petitioner as well as the prosecutrix are visually impaired and seek effective enforcement of their rights from opposite ends. The parties are entitled to be well versed with the proceedings of the litigation they pursue and the documents which materially effect their legal rights," the Court noted.

Accordingly, the Court directed the State to make suitable arrangements and provide the prosecutrix as well as the petitioner the copy of the documents in their preferred language and means of communication (i.e. Braille script) to ensure that they can effectively pursue and protect their legal rights.

"A copy of this order be sent to the learned Trial Court; Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India; Chief Secretary Government of NCT of Delhi and Registry, Delhi High Court forthwith for necessary compliance," the Court directed.

CaseTitle: SHIVAM SONI v. STATE(GNCTD)

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 295

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