The Madras High Court Bench here has directed the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) to consider sympathetically a plea made by a policeman suffering from Guillain Barre syndrome — a rare but life-threatening disorder that affects the nervous system — to transfer him from Udhagamandalam to Tiruchi, his hometown.
Allowing a writ petition filed by the policeman E. Shanmugaiah, Justice S. Vimala directed the ADGP to dispose of within two weeks the representations made by the petitioner on May 25 and once again on September 27 with a plea to transfer him to any non-sensitive post either in Tiruchi district or Tiruchi city police limits on medical grounds.
The judge made it clear that the petitioner’s representations must be considered in the light of the health issues suffered by him since he claimed to have undergone treatment as an inpatient in a hospital in Tiruchi last year and subsequently as an outpatient besides undergoing physiotherapy due to constricted movement of muscles.
Similarly, allowing another writ petition filed by a schoolteacher afflicted with polio, Justice S Vimala directed Joint Director of School Education to dispose of within four weeks a representation made by the petitioner against transferring her from a school at a distance of eight kilometres from her residence to a school situated 50 kilometres away.
The judge pointed out that the Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, spells out the responsibility of the State towards the prevention of disabilities, protection of rights, provision of medical care, education, training, employment, and rehabilitation of the physically challenged.
As per the enactment, the State was duty-bound to create a barrier-free environment for the physically challenged, remove any discrimination against them in sharing of development benefits with others, counteract any situation of abuse or exploitation and make provisions for their integration into the social mainstream.
In pursuance of the statutory obligations, the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department had issued a Government Order on July 22, 2009, laying down revised transfer guidelines which state that physically challenged government servants must be posted in places closer to their native places wherever possible.
Hence, the judge directed School Education Department officials to consider the plea made by the petitioner M. Sumathi, a B.T. Assistant in Tiruchi district, to re-transfer her from a government school at Pettaivaithalai, situated about 50 km from her residence, to a school at Thuvakudi which was around eight kilometres away.
