Delhi HC constitutes high power committee to address grievances of visually impaired in accessing financial services
Aug 02, 2022
New Delhi [India], August 2 : The Delhi High Court has constituted a high-powered committee to look into all the grievances and problems faced by visually challenged persons to access financial services.
The bench of Justice Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad in an order passed on July 29, 2022, said "a High Powered Committee is constituted by this Court to look into all the grievances raised in the petitions and to offer practical solutions in the matter.
Court also observed that this Court is pained to observe at this juncture that it is unfortunate that judicial intervention is required in such matters when measures to ensure ease of accessibility for the specially-abled should be implemented in a proactive manner. However, this Court hopes that the Committee will take these observations into consideration while arriving at a feasible solution.
"It is needless to state that the scope of the work of the Committee will not be confined only to the issues raised in the present writ petitions but other ancillary issues as well. The Committee shall consist of the following persons (1) Prof. M Balakrishnan, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi (2) Prof. Kolin Paul, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi (3) Manisha Mishra, (GM), Department of Regulation (4) Tushar Bhattacharya, (DGM) Department of Supervision (5) George Abraham, the Petitioner (6) Amar Jain, Member of Blind Graduates Forum of India the Petitioner (7) Officer to be nominated by the Union of India," the court said.
The Court further said that Prof M Balakrishnan shall be the Chairman of the Committee. The Director, IIT Delhi is requested to provide all logistic support to the Committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Prof. M Balakrishnan. The Committee is granted three months' time to submit the Status Report. The next hearing in the matter is now on November 25, 2022.
The Court was hearing an application along with a match of petitions seeking directions for the appointment of a Committee to ensure access to financial services for visually challenged persons. The plea also sought direction to the respondents to ensure that card reading devices for making card payments (Point-of-Sale Machines) are accessible for visually challenged persons.
Petitions also sought direction to the respondents to ensure that all bank websites and mobile phone applications for financial services are tested for accessibility at every stage of the transaction. It also sought direction to the respondent to make it mandatory that all net banking facilities and mobile phone applications comply with W3C guidelines which are recognized by the Government of India.
