Disabled persons should get chances: HC to state

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed the state government to ensure that schools, which receive funds from the state, have special teachers and attendants for the assistance of disabled students and staff as stipulated by statutory rules. It also observed that the state is obligated to provide meaningful opportunities of education and employment to persons with disabilities.

A bench of justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre on Friday directed the state to ensure that all special teachers and attendants approved by the state for the assistance of disabled persons were provided jobs.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by one such attendant who had been appointed by the state authorities in 2009 as a permanent employee in a special school for disabled students in Solapur district.

However, in January 2016, the government closed down the school without giving any notice or granting a hearing to the petitioner and other employees of the institute. The government also refused to grant an alternative job to the petitioner even though statutory rules mandate that any surplus teachers and attendants meant for special schools must be absorbed in other schools or units if the place of their work closes down for a valid reason.

The petitioner then moved the HC. He argued that the state received budgetary funds from the centre for such institutes and the welfare of disabled students as well as for disabled persons working as teachers or school staff.

The bench, too, noted that a previous judgement of the Aurangabad bench of the HC mandated the state government employ a certain number of special teachers for disabled students and also attendants for the assistance of disabled students and staff.

 "Even if there are surplus employees, the state is obligated to provide them employment opportunities and reinstate them in nearby primary or secondary schools." The bench directed that the petitioner be immediately re-instated in some other school in Solapur.