Madras High Court Restrains State Govt From Purchasing Public Transport Buses Without Disabled Friendly Amenities

The Madras High Court on Thursday restrained the State government from purchasing any new buses for the purpose of public transport unless such buses are disabled-friendly as per the statutory requirements under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (2016 Act) and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017 (2017 Rules).

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthikumar Ramamoorthy issued the interim injunction on a batch of writ petitions seeking the universal use of disabled-friendly buses to uphold the rights of persons with disabilities.

The Court noted that Rule 15 of the 2017 Rules mandates that every establishment must endeavour to increase accessibility for disabled persons by ensuring the compliance with the specific standard as indicated in a notification issued by the Government of India bearing GSR 895(E) dated September 20, 2016.

Such a notification stipulates that provision of the relevant Rule would be implemented in two phases- in the first phase, certain parameters as to technical specifications would apply to all buses on or after January 1, 2017, and in the second phase, the provisions of the revised specifications would apply on or after January 1, 2018.

However, despite the specified timeline, the Court observed that no progress had been made by the State government to abide by the aforementioned notification.

"In October, 2020, this Court was constrained to observe that though some of the writ petitions pertaining to better facilities for persons with disabilities had been pending from the year 2007 or even 2005, nothing fruitful or worthwhile has been done to address the genuine grievances or day to-day problems faced by the persons who are otherwise abled", the Court opined.

The counsel for the State submitted that there existed certain practical difficulties particularly in finding resources not only to acquire the more expensive buses but also to create the road infrastructure to be able to host such sophisticated buses.

Rejecting the submission, the Court observed that in view of the 2016 Act and the statutory rules framed under, the implementation of such disabled-friendly requirements must not be delayed.

Accordingly, while granting time to the State to prepare a road map for the policy implementation, the Court observed,

"It is necessary that the State be restrained from acquiring any further bus for the public transport system which does not conform to the specifications indicated in the notification of September 20, 2016 referred to above. In other words, the State will not acquire any new bus for use thereof as part of the public transport system unless such bus meets the standards indicated in the notification of September 20, 2016."

The matter is slated to be heard next on August 19.

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