Rajasthan High Court has imposed a penalty of ₹5 lakh on Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) for not allowing a visually impaired candidate to appear for RAS pre-2021 examination.
The High court judge Justice Sameer Jain directed RPSC to pay the penalty amount to the petitioner Kuldeep Jaiman with four weeks.
The High Court, in its decision, has said that RPSC presented unwanted and undue hurdles to stop the petitioner from appearing in the examination. The RPSC decision of not allowing the petitioner for the exam was completely arbitrary.
The court has also directed RPSC to come out with a policy for physically disabled candidates so that they don't have to face difficulties while appearing for the exams.
What is the case against RPSC
The petitioner Kuldeep Jaiman had pleaded before the court that he was 100% visually impaired. He had applied for RAS recruitment examination -2021 before RPSC, which conducts the exam. But when he went to take the examination, he was not allowed to enter the examination centre citing that Jaiman had not informed RPSC about the writer two days before the exam. RPSC officials also asked for medical certificate of his blindness, which he was not carrying. The commission denied him the chance to appear for the exam.
What High Court said
The High Court, in its decision has observed that the condition of informing about writer two days before the examination was not applicable in this case. The candidate has to inform about the writer only if s/he wants a writer from RPSC. While the candidate had informed RPSC during filling of the form that he will bring his own writer, there as no need of informing RPSC two days prior to the exam.
Apart from that, the decision of denying candidate the exam on ground of non availability of medical certificate also doesn't hold good. RPSC itself given admit card to the candidate under the visually impaired category. So there was no need carrying medical certificate for the same. Also, as per the rules of RPSC, candidates are not allowed to carry any document or anything except admit card, pen and passport size photo.
The court said that the petition of the candidate has become immaterial as the section process of RAS-2021 has completed. But RPSC will have to pay a penalty of ₹ 5 lakh towards mental harassment and agony within four weeks.
Government to ensure equal right for disabled persons
The High Court in its order has directed the state government to honour the rights of disabled people and implement it in letter and spirit.
The court said that disabled people have been given rights under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The state government implement these rights to honour disabled persons.
The Court also observed that its is the responsibility of the stage government to ensure equal rights to disabled persons .
