Consider arranging travel of disabled DU students to Delhi for exams: HC asks Railways

New Delhi [India], Aug 27 : The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Ministry of Railways to consider the feasibility of issuing confirmed tickets to Person with Disability (PWD) students at subsidized rates, who want to come to Delhi to appear in DU's examination.
The court asked the Ministry of Education (MoE), Ministry of Social Justice to approach the Ministry of Railway regarding arrangements for transportation for left out PWD students from distant states.
A division bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad order came on a submission made by senior advocate SK Rungta, appearing for the National Federation of the Blind, who sought the intervention of the court on travel assistance for disabled students.
However, senior advocate proposed that he will provide boarding and lodging for the visually impaired students. He also proposed to provide the list of visually impaired students seeking travel assistance.
Advocate Rungta said that students are from various states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. He said the step is important to conduct the examinations through the Open Book Examination (OBE) mode and allow students to come to Delhi, where scribes are easily available.
The court also asked the Ministry to file an affidavit and listed the matter for further hearing on September 1. Meanwhile, the Delhi University has proposed to hold the second round of examination through physical as well as email mode.
The court directed Delhi University to add a paragraph in the notice for the second round of examination informing disable students about the option to take the exam physically or online mode with the help of scribes. The disabled students would intimate their preference by September 4, the court said.
Rungta raised objection on DU submission, stating that they do not have data on PWD students and asked why are they shying away from sharing the data of visually impaired students.
Advocate Rungta told the court that he has just got the affidavit filed by DU where it has proposed both, remote and physical modes but for physical, DU has indicated that they will not give any assistance to the disabled students.
Appearing on behalf of Delhi University, senior advocate Sachin Dutta apprised the court that 647 students with physical disabilities have successfully submitted paper through the portal and there is email data right now which is in the process of compiling.
Dutta told the court that out of total 79,533 registered students, around 71 thousand submitted the paper through the portal while 7,975 students submitted the paper through email.
The court was hearing various petitions related to DU's final year examination preparedness. One of the petitions was filed by Prateek Sharma while another was filed by the National Federation of the Blind.