India's Disability Act gets delayed by over a month due to 'procedural lapse'

New Delhi: The process for implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act has been delayed by over a month after the Social Justice Ministry, “in a procedural lapse”, tried to notify the rules before the Act came into force. [caption id=“attachment_100251” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] According to government sources, the ministry had finalised the draft rules on 13 April for implementation of the Act and had sent it to the law ministry for final approval, so that it could be notified. “But, the law ministry pointed out that the rules cannot be notified as the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act was yet to come into force,” the source said. On 19 April, the social justice and empowerment ministry notified the Act in the gazette putting it into effect. “Because of this procedural lapse, the entire process of seeking people’s comments on the draft had to be repeated leading to over a month’s delay,” the source said. The Act was passed by Parliament in its last winter session and then was sent to the president for his assent. After the nod from the president, the ministry had issued a gazette notification on 28 December. “However, a separate notification mentioning the commencement of the Act had to be issued, which was not done,” the source said. The disability department, however, framed the draft rules. After getting the law ministry’s approval, it was put on the social justice ministry’s website for a month from 10 March seeking people’s feedback as per the procedure. On 13 April, the draft rules were finalised based on the recommendations received from the public and it was also approved by the minister concerned. “The draft rules were then sent to the law ministry which then informed that the Act was yet to be brought into force,” the source said. Now the draft rules have been again put on the www.egazette.nic.in for people to give their opinion on it.