JUDGMENT :

A.K. Sikri, J.

In the book on the rights of differently abled persons authored by Joseph P. Shapiro, which is titled “NO PITY” [`NO PITY': People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement' [Indian reprint by Universal Book Traders]], the first chapter, 'Introduction' has the sub-title 'You Just Don't Understand' and the very first sentence of the said book is : 'Nondisabled Americans do not understand disabled ones'.

2. The present PIL, spearheaded by Jeeja Ghosh, who is herself a disabled person, with the support of the NGO ADAPT (Able Disable All People Together), bears testimony to the statement of Shapiro. Irony is that though the aforesaid remarks were made by Shapiro way back in the year 1993 and notwithstanding the fact that there have been significant movements in recognising the rights of differently abled persons, much is yet to be achieved. India also has come out with various legislations and schemes for the upliftment of such differently abled persons, but gap between the laws and reality still remains. Even though human rights activists have ma