October 2025
October 2025
The Delhi High Court Thursday ruled that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) cannot disqualify blind candidates for junior executive (JE) posts in Common Cadre and Finance, merely because a clinical medical assessment certifies they cannot perform work by “seeing”.
Although the AAI’s Advertisement in 2023 expressly identified these posts as suitable for persons with “Blindness (B) or Low Vision (LV) disabilities”, the petitioners’ candidatures were cancelled based on medical reports that certified they could not perform work by “seeing”.
The concept of “seeing” cannot be confined to ocular functionality alone. It must be interpreted in the context of cognitive ability, assistive technology, and reasonable accommodation.
[!!|message-square|comment:“If a blind candidate, with the aid of assistive devices, is able to perceive what is necessary to discharge the functions of the JE (Law) post, they must be regarded as possessing the functional attribute of sight. - Delhi High Court”|var(--color-cyan-rgb)]
[!!cite:Drawing from the Supreme Court’s precedent in the case of **Recruitment of Visually Impaired in Judicial Services vs The Registrar General**, the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in 2024, the bench said the “suspicion-ridden, medical expertise-driven model” adopted by AAI violated the spirit of the law."]
The petitioners argued that AAI’s exclusion of blind candidates contradicted the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities’ (DEPwD) notification dated 4 January 2021, which mandates that suitability be assessed “with appropriate software, aids and appliances support as per needs”.
The petitioners had also challenged Note 8 of the DEPwD notification, which allows employers to “examine suitability of the candidate in terms of functional requirements before appointment”
The Delhi High Court dismissed this challenge, upholding Note 8 as valid so long as it is applied in accordance with the statutory process under Section 33 of the RPWD Act, which mandates that governments reserve at least 3 percent of the total public sector vacancies for persons with specified disabilities.
