Saturday, November 10, 2012

High Court directed to allow Disabled Persons to sit for BCS exam




For a long period, Persons with Disabilities (PWD) have been depriving of their rights to take participate in civil service examinations since it was prohibited to recruit disable person in civil service job.

The change has come recently through landmark ruling from the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.

It has directed to allow the PWDs to sit in 33rd Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations and to arrange reasonable accommodation in examination halls.

The application was filed on 15 March 2012 after the Public Service Commission issued a notification regarding the 33rd BCS examination which did not have any reference to persons with disabilities.

The High Court allowed the application filed on behalf of Advocate Shapan Chowkidar, a visually impaired Lawyer and three human rights and disability rights organizations namely Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust ((BLAST), Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) and Action on Disability and Development (ADD) to allow persons with disabilities to sit for the 33rd BCS examination.

They argued that such institutionalized discrimination violates fundamental rights. They called for the rights to equal opportunity under the Disability Welfare Act, 2001, referring to recent Government policy changes.

As for example the National Policy on Disability, 1995 states that, “A disabled persons cannot be treated as disqualified for government employment if s/he is otherwise competent and s/he cannot be prevent from participating in the BCS examination.’

The policy also states that “The age limit for persons with disabilities will be relaxed by five years.’ Further the Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration published a notification on 12 January 2012 stating that “one percent quota will be reserved for person with disabilities in all government, semi- government and autonomous offices/institutions.”

A total of 44 disable candidates for the first time participated in the 33rd BCS examination in the history of Bangladesh after the landmark direction given by the Court.

Background of the case:
Previously, on 18 April 2010 Advocate Shapan Chowkidar, a visually impaired individual along some others human rights organization filed a writ petition (No. 2932 of 2010) challenging Schedule 3 of the BCS rules which prohibits the recruitment of disabled people in the civil service. On their movement for the writ petition the petitioners was assisted in their research by the Harvard Project on Disability.

The petitioners argued that such discrimination violates fundamental rights, particularly to equal opportunities to public employment and to freedom of profession, and that the failure of the government to make any accommodation for employment of such persons amounts to non-compliance with its duties under the Disability Welfare Act, 2001

Subsequently, On 25 April 2010, the High Court directed the President and Secretary of the National Disability Welfare Committee to submit a report detailing steps taken to implement their obligations under section 6[2] and schedule ‘Cha’ of the Disability welfare Act. The committee submitted a report to the Court but did not mention measure taken to ensure disabled persons employment opportunity and further noted that the age and education qualification criteria for recruitment of disabled person to the civil service remained under consideration.


(Source- BLAST’s Press Release; link: http://www.blast.org.bd/content/pressrelease/press-release-BCS-20-03-12-eng.pdf)

Reported by Akramul Islam, a Student at the Department of Law, University of Dhaka and Volunteer at the Human Rights Law Clinic at the South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS) in Dhaka.  

Related Links: Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

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