Andhra Pradesh High Court: RPwD Act Provides Benefits To Individuals With Benchmark Disabilities By Reasonable Approximations, Not Precise Degree Of Disability
The Andhra Pradesh High Court allowed a Writ Petition filed by Medical College student with Cerebral Palsy, who sought additional compensatory time for writing her exams.
Justice Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad, Andhra Pradesh High Court
The Andhra Pradesh High Court clarified that the RPwD Act requires a focus on providing benefits to individuals with benchmark disabilities through reasonable approximations, rather than looking for the precise degree of their disability.
The Court allowed a Writ Petition filed by a student of Andhra Medical College with Cerebral Palsy, who sought additional compensatory time for her MBBS Second Year examinations and for all upcoming examinations until the completion of her MBBS course.
A Single Bench of Justice Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad held that “the reasonable approximations should be made so as to give benefit to an individual suffering with any kind of benchmark disability rather than looking for any precision with regard to the degree of disability of an individual inasmuch as assessment to arrive at such precision goes counter to the provisions of the RPwD Act, 2016.”
Advocate Kota Krishna Deepthi appeared for the Petitioner, while Standing Counsel Tata Venkata Sridevi represented the Respondents.
Brief Facts
The Petition challenged a memo issued by the Registrar of the University which rejected the Petitioner's claim for extra time. The Petitioner argued that the rejection deprived her of reasonable accommodation as per the Right of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (the Act) and relevant guidelines.
Court’s Observations
The High Court noted that the Petitioner had been granted 60 minutes in addition to the regular examination time in the past. However, this was insufficient, leading to a prior writ petition where the Court allowed an additional 30 minutes.
The Court referred to the Supreme Court’s decision in Avni Prakash v. National Testing Agency (NTA) (2023) which dealt with the scope of “reasonable accommodation‟ and the provision of a scribe and extra time to be granted to the differently abled persons suffering from benchmark disabilities.
In Avni Prakesh (supra), the Court held, “Inclusive education is indispensable for ensuring universal and non-discriminatory access to education. The Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises that inclusive education systems must be put in place for a meaningful realisation of the right to education for PwD. Thus, a right to education is essentially a right to inclusive education.”
Consequently, the Court held, “During the course of hearing on 03.04.2025, it was informed that the 2nd year MBBS examinations are scheduled to commence from 07.04.2025, thereby compelling the Court to deliver this Judgment as expeditiously as possible. This impending urgency had rather compelled this Court to deliver this judgment in a hurry. Therefore, this Court could not appreciate the judgments of the Hon‟ble Apex Court in a threadbear manner.”
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the Petition.
Cause Title: Jammula Nandasai Mithra v. The State Of AP & Ors. (WRIT PETITION NO: 5316 OF 2025)
Appearance:
Petitioner: Advocate S.M. Chowdhary
Respondents: Advocate Sagira Jaffar, assisting counsel to Senior AAG Monika Kohli
