News

Volume 6 Issue 5 - August 15, 2009

Court rooms to become accessible in Punjab and Haryana High Court

D.N.I.S. News Network, India: It took four long years and a contempt of court case, but finally the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh will have ramps by October 2009 to ensure that disabled litigants also get to hear the proceedings of the Court. The second wing of the court building, where majority of judges have their courts, is not accessible at present as there is no provision of lifts or a ramp.

Karanvir Singh Gandotra filed a Contempt of Court petition in the High Court against the Court authorities and the Chandigarh administration for failing to comply with an April, 2005 order given by the then Chief Justice, D.K. Jain directing the authorities to make the High Court disabled friendly.

The petitioners said that persons with disabilities found it extremely difficult to make it to the new block of the High Court because it was neither provided with a lift nor a ramp. In 2005, Rajiv Atma Ram, the then senior standing counsel for Chandigarh administration, had submitted that the administration was ready to install a lift and also build a ramp as soon as a proposal in this regard was received from the authorities. But nothing had come up in four years.