NEW DELHI: In a landmark judgment to enable the disabled live with dignity and compete with others on equal footing,the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a person's blindness or physical disabilities is no disqualification for appointment as Judge.
In the process, a bench of Justices ices D Y Chandrachud,Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna overruled a two-Judge SC bench ruling of 2019 upholding a ceiling of 40-50% visual/hearing impairment as the benchmark for a person's appointment as a civil judge (junior division) in Tamil Nadu and said persons with physical disability must be given all  possible assistance, technological as also a scribe, for taking examination to compete with a real sense of equality.
The court took exception to common societal reference to persons with disabilities as 'mentally ill' or 'divyangjan' and said, "Our discourse must be couched in terms that reflect the recognition of a human rights model to viewing disability. Insensitive language offends the human dignity of persons with disabilities."
Referring to a UN Committee report on rights of disabled persons, the bench said, "In its concluding observations on India, the Committee notes with concern references to 'normal life' as  opposed to the lives of persons with disabilities and derogatory terminology such as 'mentally ill' and divyangjan', which as it notes, remains controversial. It is our earnest hope that the paradigm-shifting conversation about the rights and status of the disabled, that the Committee has generated, will find a resonance in the language we use to refer to them.
Source:https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/blindness-disability-no-bar-to-being-judge-sc/articleshow/80871072.cms