Disability Rights: SC directs UPSC to allow scribe change up to 7 days before exam

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) – which conducts the prestigious Civil Services Examination — to allow eligible candidates to request a change of scribe till at least seven days prior to the examination.

A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta also asked the UPSC to file a comprehensive compliance affidavit delineating the proposed plan of action, timeline and modalities for the deployment and use of a screen-reader software for visually-impaired candidates in the exams conducted by it.

It directed that the UPSC shall "ensure that in every notification for the examinations conducted by it, a clear provision is incorporated permitting candidates eligible for a scribe to request a change of the scribe up to at least seven days prior to the date of the examination".

Such requests be objectively considered and disposed of by a reasoned order within three working days of the receipt of the applications, it said.

The verdict came on a petition filed by Mission Accessibility seeking a modification in the timeline for scribe registration in the Civil Services Examination conducted by the UPSC. The petitioner had also sought a direction to allow the use of laptops equipped with a screen-reader software, along with accessible digital question papers, for eligible candidates.

The rights guaranteed to differently-abled people are not acts of benevolence, but expressions of the constitutional promise of equality, dignity and non-discrimination, it said.

“The true measure of inclusivity in governance lies not merely in the formulation of progressive policies but in their faithful and effective implementation,” the Bench said.

The top court directed the UPSC to file a comprehensive compliance affidavit, "clearly delineating the proposed plan of action, timeline and modalities for the deployment and use of a screen-reader software for visually-impaired candidates in the examinations to be conducted by it".

It asked the UPSC to specify the steps proposed for testing, standardisation and validation of the software and related infrastructure across all centres or at the designated examination centres and also indicate the feasibility of ensuring that the said facility was made operational and available to all eligible candidates from the next cycle of examinations.

"It is therefore imperative that the directions issued herein are carried out with utmost earnestness, sensitivity and expedition, so that the constitutional vision of equal opportunity and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities is not reduced to a distant aspiration, but is realised as a living, enforceable and enduring reality in the conduct of all public examinations in the country," it said, posting the matter to February 16 next year for the UPSC's compliance affidavit.

"Equality, in its truest sense, demands not uniformity but the removal of barriers that prevent individuals from standing on equal footing," it said, adding, "The law, as an instrument of justice, must therefore move beyond formal equality to ensure substantive inclusion, transforming rights from written promises into lived realities."

The UPSC shall, in coordination with the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities, formulate uniform guidelines and protocols for the use of the screen-reader software and other assistive technologies to ensure standardisation, accessibility and security of the examination process, it said.

The top court directed the Department of Personnel and Training and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to extend all necessary administrative and technical support to the UPSC for an expeditious implementation of these measures.

The Centre shall also facilitate coordination with the states and the examination authorities, wherever required.

The measure of a just and inclusive society lies not merely in the freedoms it proclaims, but in the opportunities it ensures for all its citizens to realise their fullest potential, it said.