A visually challenged girl has knocked at the doors of the Bombay high court alleging that she was not provided with a proper writer for the written examination to fill up vacant posts in the Zilla Parishad in the Thane district.

Prachi Shrisikar, who has lost 80 per cent of her vision, had written a letter to the HC, which was converted into a suo motu (on its own) writ petition by chief justice Mohit Shah.

During the hearing on Thursday, a division bench of the chief justice and justice MS Sanklecha sought a response from the Thane Zilla Parishad by October 9.

Shrisikar’s letter  stated that a government resolution was issued on February 28 for filling 206 vacant posts in the Thane Zilla Parishad.

Shrisikar applied for the junior clerk’s post on April 22. There were 15 vacant posts for the junior clerk of which 3 were reserved for visually challenged persons.

The newspaper advertisement said writers would be provided to the visually challenged candidates. It also gave the candidates the option to get their own writers. 

The examination was held on June 16. Shrisikar’s counsel Uday Warunjikar said that although she took along her writer, he was found ineligible as he was a Class 12 student, and the qualification for the post was matriculation.

Shrisikar later alleged in the letter that the writer provided to her did not write the answers as she had dictated.

Additional government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani submitted an affidavit by Ashok Patil, deputy chief executive officer of the ZP, stating that Shrisikar made the allegations belatedly,  writing the letter to the HC only in August.

The HC has asked the Thane ZP to give details of the seating arrangement for the visually challenged candidates.

The allegation
Prachi Shrisikar, the visually challenged girl, alleged in her letter to the high court that the writer provided to her did not write the answers as she had dictated them. She was given a writer after the one she had taken along was found ineligible.

Source: DNA