Overview

• A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta held that refusing to migrate high-scoring disabled candidates to the unreserved list violates Section 34 of the RPwD Act and amounts to hostile discrimination.
• The Court noted that keeping top-scoring persons with disabilities in reserved slots denies lower-scoring candidates rightful access to those reserved posts.
• The Union government must explain by October 14 what measures ensure upward movement for meritorious PwD, with the Court clarifying that the same principle should govern promotions.
• Under "Project Ability Empowerment," eight National Law Universities will monitor state-run institutions for persons with cognitive disabilities, with interim funding of ₹25 lakh per NLU and costs shared with states and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
• Monitoring will assess care, accessibility, staffing, resources, compliance and welfare access, with a consolidated report due in six months and the case listed for further hearing on March 13, 2026.