The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Delhi government on a plea filed by a disability rights activist against the purchase of standard-floor buses instead of low-floor ones, which now form a lion’s share of the Capital’s urban transport fleet.
A Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Sanjeev Khanna, however, refused to stay an October 22, 2018 order of the Delhi High Court allowing AAP government to go ahead with the purchase of 500 standard-floor buses to ply the city’s outskirts where the roads are in poor condition.
The activist, Nipun Malhotra, had contended that the High Court had erroneously interpreted the law.
He said that the move to purchase the high-floor buses would act as a handicap for the disabled and the elderly. Their right to access public transport would end, especially in the outskirts, he stated.
The petition said such a move would be in violation of the fundamental rights to equality, against discrimination, liberty, life and dignity. It would also be a violation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
In October, the High Court had laid down the condition that the standard-floor buses should have hydraulic lifts for the convenience of the differently abled. In its interim order on August 2, the Supreme Court had allowed the government to purchase 500 standard-floor buses, out of the 1,000 proposed, to improve public transport system in rural areas of the city.
