NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has ruled that a Visually impaired candidate can’t be ousted from recruitment for a job post if he is able to perceive and discharge required duties.
The decision came in petitions filed against the Airports Authority of India, which had disqualified blind applicants from the post of Junior Executive (Law) despite reserving two vacancies for persons with visual impairments.
A division bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Ajay Digpaul ruled that once a post is identified as suitable for blind or low vision candidates by the statutory committee under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, further restrictions such as the “functional requirement” of seeing cannot be imposed arbitrarily by the appointing authority.
The petitioners were disqualified by AAI on the grounds that they did not meet the requirement of seeing. Advocate S K Rungta, representing the petitioners, argued that once a post has been deemed suitable for blind candidates, there is no legal basis for excluding them.