High Court sets 4-month deadline to notify rules

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 21

More than a year after the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act coming into effect, the state government has failed to frame rules under it. Taking up the issue, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has set a four-month deadline for the state to take necessary steps.

The rules, among other things, provide for manner of constituting committees for research on disability and providing support of a guardian. The direction by acting Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa came on a petition filed in public interest by the All-India Blind Employees Association against the Union of India and other respondents.

They were seeking quashing of an order dated February 16, 2016, vide which a commissioner was appointed for persons with disabilities under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act.

As the case came up for hearing, counsel representing the petitioner “fairly stated” that validity of the then commissioner’s appointment was not required to be gone into as his tenure had already ended. Dinesh Shastri had been appointed commissioner for a year.

The counsel submitted that the only prayer that survived in the petition was regarding Haryana’s obligation to frame rules under Section 101 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act.

The section deals with the state government’s powers to make the rules. It says the government may, by notification, make rules for carrying out provisions of the Act, not later than six months from the date of its commencement.

The Bench asserted that a bare perusal of the statutory provision mandated the state government to make rules for carrying out provisions of the Act not later than six months from its commencement. It was not disputed that the 2016 Act came into force with effect from April 19, 2017.

The state counsel, in response, submitted that the government was under obligation to frame the rules and notify these as per the 2016 Act. He was not in a position to furnish a timeframe within which the rules would be framed.

“Keeping in view the laudable object sought to be achieved under the Act, the instant writ petition is disposed of, with a direction to Haryana and the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment to take necessary steps to frame rules as per mandate of Section 101 of the 2016 Act. The rules be framed and notified expeditiously and in any case within four months from the date of receiving the order’s certified copy,” the Bench asserted.