High Court Notice on Right to Education for Differently-abled Children to Centre

The Delhi High Court requested the Centre to ensure the Right to Education for the differently-abled children. The notice was issued by the bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar to the Centre and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The notice asked them to file a response within four weeks. The matter is listed on March 6, 2018.

The appeal was filed by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. The plea said that India having ratified the United Nation Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, was under an obligation to make ‘inclusive education’ effective in all schools in the country. It is a system where students, with or without disability, learn together.

The Petition said, “The right to education of children with disabilities makes it the government’s obligation to ensure that schools provide the requisite facilities to meet the learning needs of different types of students with disabilities.”

To satisfy the commitment made under the UN Convention, necessities related to ‘inclusive education’ must have been included under the RTE Act. The petition also said, “However, by only ensuring access to mainstream schools without clearly specifying norms and standards for inclusion, individualised support and reasonable accommodation, the RTE Act is merely paying lip service to the concept of inclusive education.”

The petition is to provide directions to the Centre to introduce the norms and principles of inclusive education within the realm of the RTE Act.