On 03/08/2021, a division bench headed by the Hon’ble Mr. Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Hon’ble Mr. Justice S. Kumar of Hon’ble Patna High Court in the Case of Sitaram Vs The State of Bihar and Ors. CWJC 13673 of 2021 issued notice to the state upon the issue of fee waiver for the students with disabilities in the Higher Education in Bihar. The prayers made out by the Petitioner, who himself is a Person with Disability and also a law graduate from the Patna University were to take immediate steps to provideunder-graduate and post-graduate courses in all the universities under, receiving aid from and/or affiliated to the State of Bihar to persons with disabilities free of any charges and to take any other adequate steps with regard to the provision of inclusive education to them, to provide free higher education to students with disabilities at par with with students from SC/ST communities and women in the Universities under/ aided by or affiliated to the State of Bihar, to admit persons with disabilities without discrimination and to provide education and opportunities for sports and recreation activities equally with others, to make building, campus and various facilities accessible to persons with disabilities, to provide reasonable accommodation according to the individual's requirements, to ensure that the education to persons who are blind or deaf or both is imparted in the most appropriate languages and modes and means of communications and to provide books, other learning materials and appropriate assistive devices to students with benchmark disabilities free of cost at the University level.
The Hon’ble Mr. Chief Justice after hearing the Counsels for the Petitioner, Mr. Anjani Kumar and Mr. Vishal Kumar Singh for sometime inquired about the standards of technical education amongst the PwDs. Advocate Shilpa appearing on behalf of the Respondents submitted that she will file a Counter Affidavit in this regard. The Hon’ble Mr. Chief Justice emphasized the need of technical education and asked the Counsel appearing on behalf of the Respondents to trace the probability of providing Brail – Visually impaired friendly laptops to the Students with Disabilities.
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