Supreme Court Verdict on Accessibility Guidelines

The Supreme Court in Rajive Raturi v. Union of India (2024) declared Rule 15 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Rules, 2017, inconsistent with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. 

Rule 15's discretionary nature clashed with the Act's mandatory provisions, such as Sections 40, 44, 45, 46, and 89. Consequently, the accessibility guidelines under Rule 15, including those from various ministries, lost statutory authority.

Key Implications of the Judgment

• The Court mandated the government to establish minimum mandatory accessibility requirements within three months.
• Court highlighted the fragmented creation of accessibility guidelines, stressing the need for principle-based frameworks ensuring universality and intersectionality.

Conceptual Clarifications

The judgment distinguished between accessibility and reasonable accommodation:

• Accessibility: A right embedded throughout the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, providing standardized accessibility standards.
• Reasonable Accommodation: Facilitates substantive equality by offering tailored solutions for specific challenges in particular contexts.

Evolving Understanding of Accessibility

Accessibility is dynamic, evolving with technological advances like AI and IoT, requiring ongoing adaptation of digital accessibility tools. The phased realization of accessibility involves setting immediate minimum standards with progressive enhancements.

Global Best Practices

Canada's roadmap to full accessibility by 2040 serves as a model, emphasizing harmonized standards with five-yearly reviews to meet evolving needs.

Addressing Barriers

The RPwD Act recognizes both tangible and intangible barriers, such as attitudinal barriers, necessitating theoretical and practical evolution of accessibility.

Universal Design

Universal design now encompasses all vulnerable groups, not just persons with disabilities, reflecting the environmental, rather than individual, basis of disability.

Role of Social Audits

Section 48 mandates regular social audits of schemes to ensure they are inclusive. However, lack of standardized guidelines leads to inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Standardization is crucial for effective identification of challenges and service enhancement.

Bureaucratic Complexities and Recommendations

Previous guidelines were complex and inconsistent, leading to increased compliance costs and delayed redressal for persons with disabilities. New guidelines should be clear, practical, and overseen by a nodal authority for effective implementation.

Deadline for New Guidelines

The deadline for releasing new guidelines is February, with potential extensions, urging diverse sectors to deliberate on minimum accessibility standards. This not only complies with legislative mandates but also presents market opportunities for inclusive products and services.

Illegal Online Pharmacies

According to the US Trade Representative's annual report, nearly all of the world's 35,000 online pharmacies are operating illegally. Consumers using these pharmacies risk obtaining ineffective or dangerous drugs. The report reveals that 96% of these pharmacies violate laws, often lacking licenses and selling medications without prescriptions or safety warnings.

• The websites of these illegal pharmacies often resemble legitimate e-commerce platforms.
• They falsely claim approval from entities like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• The FDA and US Drug Enforcement Administration have issued warnings about these risks.

A survey by the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies' Global Foundation found that nearly 25% of Americans using online pharmacies encountered substandard or harmful medicines.

Counterfeit Drug Operations

Federal prosecutors reported operations involving illegal drug sellers from the US, Dominican Republic, and India. They packaged synthetic opioids into pills disguised as legitimate prescription drugs, resulting in at least nine deaths from narcotics poisoning between August 2023 and June 2024.

Global Counterfeit and Piracy Concerns

The report highlights the issue of counterfeit or pirated products in 19 countries, with specific emphasis on online retailers in China and Asia engaged in illegal activities.

• Examples include cracked down operations in places like Vietnam and Brazil.
• Cyberlockers and bulletproof ISPs are problematic as they enable piracy.

Challenges and Progress in Counterfeit Goods

The report acknowledges progress in fighting counterfeit goods. Notably, US authorities collaborated with industry groups to shut down a piracy ring in Hanoi, Vietnam.

• The site had over 6.7 billion visits from January 2023 to June 2024.

Concerns with Online Platforms

Several platforms like Avito, Baidu Wangpan, Pinduoduo, Douyin Mall, and Shopee were named for hosting counterfeit goods or enabling piracy.

• IndiaMART was specifically highlighted for offering counterfeit products.

Physical Markets and Intellectual Property Theft

The report also identifies real-world locations notorious for selling counterfeit products, such as markets in Turkey and the UAE. Bangkok's MBK Centre was noted for attempting to reduce counterfeiting, though challenges remain.