Bathinda-born Anchal is Supreme Court’s first visually impaired woman lawyer

Advocate Anchal Bhatheja from Bathinda in Punjab has become the first visually impaired woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court of India. She made her debut appearance recently.

Shiromani Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is MP from Bathinda, posted on X: “Heartiest congratulations to Anchal Bhatheja of Bathinda who has done us proud by becoming the first visually impaired lawyer to appear before the Supreme Court. I wish her all success.”

Speaking to The Tribune about the landmark moment, Anchal said the experience was both empowering and difficult, particularly due to barriers in accessing legal documents. “Whether we talk about trial courts, High Courts or the SC, the principal challenge for visually impaired persons is to access documents. We hope such issues are sorted out soon,” she said.

Commenting on the perception bias that visually impaired lawyers often face, Bathinda-born Anchal noted, “People think how will we fight the case. They need to give up such a mindset.”

Her first case before the apex court dealt with a critical constitutional challenge to a recruitment notification issued by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission for the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division) under the Uttarakhand Judicial Service.

The notification dated May 16 this year offered reservations for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities but only under narrow categories of leprosy cured, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy, thereby excluding candidates with visual and locomotor disabilities.

Representing a petitioner, who is 100% visually impaired, Anchal argued that such exclusion was arbitrary and violative of Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which mandated 4% horizontal reservation across a broad range of disability categories.

Born with low vision due to birth complications and losing her eyesight completely just before her Class 10 exams due to retinopathy of prematurity, Anchal’s journey has been marked by resilience. She became the first visually challenged student to be admitted to the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, and went on to graduate in 2023.