The Hon’ble Madras High court on Monday clearly stated that there cannot be any new public buildings constructed, planned, or sanctioned unless it has facilities ensuring access for persons with disabilities.
The Hon’ble court, in this case, observed that all public buildings including the courts must have access so that they can easily be used by persons with disabilities. Further, there must be an installment of a washroom in public buildings which may be used by persons with disabilities.
The Hon’ble Bench of Hon’ble Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Hon’ble Justice Senthil Kumar Ramamoorthy was dealing with this matter. It was a public interest litigation petition that was moved by M Karpagam. Before this year, the court had asked the state to file a report on how far the public buildings are or can be accessible for differently-abled persons.
The status of the report was, accordingly, filed by the government. However, while seeing the report the Hon’ble Court noted on Monday that the report does not indicate whether buildings across Tamil Nadu can be accessed by persons with disabilities. That means the report was silent in the context of Tamil Nadu.
