Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court today(August 18) stayed a 2018 Uttarakhand Government notification which restricts persons with blindness, visually impaired persons and those with locomotor disability, who are already excluded from reservation under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities ("PwBD"), to appear in the general category for the Uttarakhand Judicial Services.

The Court has directed that those persons, who are excluded from the PwBD category and also from the general category by virtue of being excluded from the PwBD category, can appear in the preliminary test scheduled to be held on August 31 in the general category/SC/ST/OBC.

A bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan was hearing a writ petition filed by a blind candidate seeking to appear for the Uttarakhand Judicial Service Exams. She has challenged the exclusion of persons with blindness and locomotor disability, and also persons who are not domiciled in Uttarakhand, from being eligible for the PwBD quota in the Uttarakhand Judicial Exams. On last occasion, the Court had issued a notice to the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission ("UKPSC").

Senior Advocate and amicus Gaurav Agarwal today pointed said that as of now, there is an agreement by the Uttarakhand State and the UKPSC that there needs to be compliance with the Supreme Court's judgment in which it was observed that visually impaired and low vision candidates are eligible to participate in the selection for posts under the judicial service. Appearing for the State of Uttarakhand, Advocate Vanshaja Shukla and for the UKPSC, Advocate Ashutosh Kumar, and the counsel for the High Court, agreed to this stand.

As for the issue of domicile, it stated that this issue needs further examination since there is also an Act which says that PwD needs to be from Uttarakhand to apply for judicial services. The Court while reserving the judgment asked the counsel to file written submission on this.

Agarwal then recommended that from next year, there can't be any restriction on these categories of persons to appear for the State Judicial Services. For now, he added that the petitioner will appear in the general category. He also claimed that there is no reasonable accommodation in terms of a scribe. However, UKPSC counsel pointed out that she is restricted to apply for the general category as well if the candidate is excluded from the PwBD quota.

On this, Justice Pardiwala said: "So since does not qualify to apply for the persons with disability, she can't apply in general category also? That's absurd G.O. We will strike it down here and now."

Justice Pardiwala asked UKPSC to allow those candidates to apply and give them extra time and the facility of a scribe.

It ordered: "Heard Mr Gaurav Agarwal, the learned amicus, Ms Vanshaja Shukla, learned counsel appearing for State of Uttarakhand, Mr Ashutosh Kumar Sharma, learned counsel for Uttarakhand Public Service Commission, and Mr Sudarshan Singh Rawat, learned counsel appearing for the Uttarakhand High Court. Arguments concluded, judgment reserved.

However, we would like to pass short order so far as the preliminary test which is scheduled to be held on 31 August. We have been given to understand that all those candidates who do not qualify under the category of physically handicapped cannot apply even in the general category. The aforesaid is because of a State Government notification dated 29.9.18. In view of the aforesaid notification, the stance of the UKPSC that only candidates of identified categories if disability are eligible to apply against the unreserved/general category notified in the vacancy. In the facts and circumstances of this case and the reasons we may assign in the main judgment, we stay the operation of this notification dated 26.9.2018.

We further clarify that all those candidates falling in the category of specified disability under the Schedule of the RPwD Act should be given an opportunity to appear in the preliminary test scheduled on August 31 as candidates of general category/SC/ST/OBC. In this regard, we direct that they shall be provided with a scribe as per Rules and 20 minutes per hour of extra time."

The Court asked the candidates to apply by email or physically in person on or before this Friday by 5 pm.

Background

The writ petition challenges the constitutionality of the Advertisement dated 16.05.2025 issued for recruitment to the Uttarakhand Judicial Service Civil Judge (Junior Division). The petitioner is a person with 100% visual impairment and is challenging the exclusion of blind, visually impaired persons and those with locomotor disability from being eligible for the judicial exams.

The advertisement has been challenged as it limits the scope of eligibility under the seats reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD). The seats are categorically reserved only for 4 subtypes - Leprosy Cured, Acid Attack Victims, and Muscular Dystrophy.

The plea states that such a limitation arbitrarily excludes all other benchmark disabilities, including blindness and locomotor disability, in violation of Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act).

Notably, S. 34(1)(a) states : Every appropriate Government shall appoint in every Government establishment, not less than four per cent. of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities of which, one per cent. each shall be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (a), (b) and (c) and one per cent. for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (d) and (e), namely:

(a) blindness and low vision;

(c) locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy;

The petition also highlights that the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission has overlooked the request of the petitioner for alloting a scribe during the exams.

The plea mainly challenges the exclusion on three main aspects : (1) its violative of Articles 14, 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Constitution of India; (2) it is contrary to the decision of the Supreme Court in Re: Recruitment of Visually Impaired in Judicial Services V. Registrar General, High Court of Madhya Pradesh; (3) the eligibility under the PwBD category has been also denied for not a being a domicile of the Uttrakhand state.

In Re: Recruitment of Visually Impaired in Judicial Services, the Supreme Court bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan struck down a rule of the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Services Rules to the extent it barred visually impaired and low vision candidates from judicial service.

The Court emphatically held that visually impaired and low vision candidates are eligible to participate in the selection for posts under the judicial service.

The petition had been filed with the assistance of AOR Vikram Hegde.

Case Details: SRAVYA SINDHURI v. UTTARAKHAND PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION AND ORS.|W.P.(C) No. 570/2025