Recently, Supreme Court is the case M Karoagam v/s Union of India & Or’s has issued a notice in a plea by a disability rights activist seeking directions to provide sign language interpreters during the press briefings by Ministers.
A visually impaired woman advocate, who is the petitioner herself, M Karoagam is practicing at the High Court of Madras, was represented through Advocate Nupur Kumar, Advocate Prabhakaran, and Advocate Balamuki S.
The petitioner in the plea stated speech impaired is denied an opportunity to understand on a real-time basis any communications from the Chief Minister of the State of Tamil Nadu, especially about the pandemic, its safety measures, lockdown guidelines, etc, and with no sign language interpreters several thousands of hearings.
A bench comprising Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice Vikram Nath has issued the direction in PIL filed seeking directions to have in-frame Sign language interpreter in all the official press briefings conducted by the Prime Minister, other Ministers of the Union Government, Chief Ministers of all the States and other Ministers of the State Government, in accordance with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.
Access to sign language is the basic human right of deaf people and is also the key to breaking down communication barriers and participating in society just like anyone else.
The petition has also mentioned that the 2016 Act unequivocally prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, which includes failing to provide meaningful access to public benefits, programs, or services.
It has been argued that Section 42 of the 2016 Act, provides facilities including sign language interpreters for persons with hearing and speech impairment to make information and communication accessible to this section of people.
She continued that though the guidelines from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was supposed to provide sign language interpreter once daily in news channels even after that many news channels fail to follow the said guidelines
