Title: Models of Disability and Judicial Interpretation in India
Published on: April 4, 2024
Published in: Handbook of Disability: Critical Thought and Social Change in a Globalizing World
| How disability is modeled or understood is determinative in the evolution of both Disability Studies and Disability Politics. By focusing on India, this chapter demonstrates that transformation and metamorphosis in the lives of persons with disabilities is contingent and predicated on the adoption of models to evolve conceptions of disability and disability rights. Upon the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006 by India, a presumption arose that the Indian legal order embraced the social and Human rights models of disability and that disability was no longer to be viewed through the prism of the Medical Model. The judiciary is enjoined to be cognizant to and sensitive of these presumptions while interpreting the Constitution and other laws, just as the legislature and executive are mandated to reflect the same in the enactment and execution of laws.
This chapter investigates how the judiciary has drawn upon the social and human rights models of disability in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities. The challenges faced by the judiciary in carrying out this role are also addressed. As Dhanda has argued, the approach of courts in India to disability rights cases continues to be dominated by a narrow focus on the facts of each particular case rather than an ambition for more systemic change (Dhanda, 2005). Nevertheless, there are some interesting and potentially important exceptions, which draw upon the social and human rights models of disability implicitly or explicitly. |