Disability rights core of CSR, not charity: SC

THE TOP COURT LINKED DISABILITY INCLUSION DIRECTLY WITH CSR AND GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS

- Utkarsh Anand

True equality at the workplace can be achieved only when disability rights are treated asa core part of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the Supreme Court has held, ordering public sector major Coal India Ltd (CIL) to create an additional post and appoint a woman with disability as a management trainee.

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan said that companies, especially public sector undertakings, must view the rights of persons with disabilities not as charity or compliance, but as an essential part of their social responsibility.

“True equality at the workplace can be achieved only with the right impetus given to disability rights as a facet of Corporate Social Responsibility,” the court said in its January 13 order.

The ruling came in a case involving a woman with 57% disability who had applied for the post of management trainee with Coal India in 2019 under the visually handicapped category. She was shortlisted and called for document verification and a medical examination but was later declared medically unfit after it was found that she also suffered from another neurological condition.