Visually Impaired People Can Be Judges Too: Supreme Court

Pragya Pathak

Author

Updated: 16-04-2025 at 12:50 PM

Every country has a judicial system established to ensure fair and equal rights for all. However, these fair and equal rights weren’t being accessed by People with Disabilities (PwDs). PwDs face a mountain of issues in their daily lives not because of physical limitations but because of the society that does not allow itself to accept them and treat them on par.

Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) of India has announced a ruling concerning visually impaired people to become judges in court. This ruling was made to end the complex and never-ending cycle of discrimination against People with Disabilities and to ensure that they can access their basic rights including the right to employment.

Read the article to learn more about the ruling made by the SC of India along with its specifics.

Visually Impaired People To Be Judges

Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) of India ruled upon a case concerning the provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service. The provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service weren’t inclusive of People with Disabilities which prohibited interested people from joining the services as judges.

When this came to the attention of the SC of India, they made a ruling in favour of the PwDs, specifically visually impaired people. It is the right of visually impaired people to secure employment based on their skills and knowledge and not be subjected to rejection based on their physical limitations.

The court expressed that, "It is high time that we view the right against disability-based discrimination, as recognised in the RPwD Act (Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act) 2016, of the same stature as a fundamental right, thereby ensuring that no candidate is denied consideration solely on account of their disability".

Specifics Of The Ruling

The bench of justices who made this significant and transformative ruling comprised J.B. Pardiwala and R Mahadevan. It was a 122-page judgement wherein the court announced that visually impaired candidates cannot be deemed as ‘not suitable’ for judicial service.

Removed Rules From The Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service

Two major rules of the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service that have been removed are laid down below for one’s better understanding and reference:

Rule 6A of the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules of 1994 has been removed permanently as it is set in violation of the constitution of India.
Rule 7 comprising the additional requirements for employment has also been removed as it violated equality.

The judgement has also referred to the Indra Sawhney (Mandal) judgement wherein a separate cut-off and selection process was declared to be made for visually impaired candidates.

The SC of India has instructed the concerned MP authorities to comply with the newly issued guidelines and make the changes within 3 months.

Conclusion

The recent ruling made by the Supreme Court of India has been made to make all state laws inclusive and respectful to all the citizens of India irrespective of who and what they might be facing in adherence to Articles 14, 15, & 16 of the Constitution of India.

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