HC seeks Centre, AIIMS reply on acid attack victim's plea on recruitment notification

The Delhi High Court today sought the response of the Centre and the AIIMS on a plea by an acid attack survivor against a notification by the hospital on recruitment of staff nurses saying such victims were not placed under the quota for persons with disability.

Justice P S Teji issued notice to the central government and the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences and posted the matter for further hearing on September 13.

The judge also permitted the 30-year-old woman petitioner to apply for the post under the general category and said her plea, to be placed under the physically handicapped category, would be decided in the final verdict.

The woman has challenged the June 13 notification issued by the AIIMS for recruitment of staff nurses in which acid attack victims were not given the quota under the category of persons with disability.

The petition said that acid attack is a specified disability under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and that she has 57 per cent permanent disability.

The plea, filed through advocate Govind Jee, claimed that she was unable to apply for the post of nursing officer as notified by the hospital while applying for the same, the options for persons with bench-mark disability is one leg category.

She sought quashing of the decision of the authorities to exclude the acid attack victims from the disabled category and that they should not be discriminated within public appointments and reservation on such posts.

The woman received acid burns in 2004 when she was attacked by a group of men at Shamli in Uttar Pradesh. She was a minor at the time of the incident.

She later completed her senior secondary school examination and in 2014 she finished her diploma in general nursing and midwifery from the Jamia Hamdard University.

A registered member of the Delhi Nursing Council, she has worked as a staff nurse with various hospitals, the plea said.

In her petition, she also claimed that the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had last year bestowed upon her the national award in recognition of her outstanding performance as the most efficient employee in the category of multiple disabilities.