HYDERABAD: Several lawyers with disabilities (LWDs) in Hyderabad, Telangana, are forced to leave practice — not due to lack of clients or expertise, but because the court complexes are inaccessible to them. They say that none of the court premises in the city are disabled-friendly, forcing at least some of them to quit. According to an informal survey conducted by the recently-formed Telangana Disabled Advocates Association (TDAA), there are around 1,000 LWDs in the state. They, however, have very few clients as logistics of moving from one court to another becomes a challenge due to design barriers in court buildings.
Advocate Mohd Fariduddin, for instance, specialises in civil and criminal cases. He has 85 per cent orthopaedic disability and uses crutches. While some judges considerately wait for Fariduddin, there are others who push the hearing date if he is late by even a few minutes. “Our judges are overburdened, as there is a shortage of them in courts. They do not have the time to wait and move on to the next case where the lawyer and parties are ready,” says Ramachander Sanjay, a lawyer with locomotor disability.
The court complexes in Nampally, Miyapur and Erramanzil in Hyderabad do not have ramps. The elevators in Miyapur and Erramanzil hardly function. Also, the rest rooms do not have western commodes, making it hard for LWDs to relieve themselves. All of these lawyers feel that their problems would end if the rules of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 are formulated. “If the Act is implemented, court premises will be made accessible for us as mandated by it,” says Fariduddin.
Several people, including Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, have demanded that the state government speed up the process of formulating rules of the Act. Besides, legal experts have been suggesting Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods such as mediation and arbitration to help LWDs. LWDs can start practising ADR as these mechanisms do not require us to move from one place to another frequently. For this, the courts and the judges have to acknowledge our existence and also promote ADR,” says Fariduddin.