Provide hostel to visually challenged student for free: HC directs JNU

WHILE UPHOLDING the entitlement of a 100% visually challenged master’s student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to hostel accommodation, the Delhi High Court directed the varsity to provide “free of cost” facilities to the student within a week, starting Monday.

The HC was hearing a plea by Sanjeev Kumar Mishra, a MA student in Sociology at JNU, in which he mentioned that he has not been allotted any hostel since his admission to the varsity on November 23, 2022. JNU had earlier argued that the provisions of the JNU Hostel Manual did not entitle Mishra to hostel accommodation as he was pursuing a second master’s degree.

Underscoring “inclusivity” and“integration into mainstream of society” as the purpose of the Rights of persons with disabilities Act (RPWD), a single-judge bench of justice char is hank ar observed in its order, “Persons who suffer from disabilities, as recognised by the RPWD Act, are no different from you or me... The RPWD Act and all laws which strive to providesupport to a person suffering from a disability, merely seek to neutralise the disability, so that the person’ s ability matches those of the rest of his peers, and they stand on an equal footing...”

Justice Shankar also observed that if an educational institution fails to provide facilities to enable a differently abled student to “utilise the educational opportunity in full measure”, then it is a “clear and transparent breach” of the Act. “...A student who is pursuing a second Master’s degree course with the JNU, having already pursued and completed one, is as entitled to a place to stay as a student who is joining JNU for the first time. The needs of one cannot be sacrificed at the altar of the needs of the other...,” underscored Justice Shankar.