sc-gets-its-first-visually-challenged-woman-lawyer-from-bathinda

Anchal Bhatheja of Bathinda in Punjab has turned out to be the first visually challenged woman to become an advocate of the Supreme Court. She made her debut appearance recently when she presented arguments during the hearing of her first case.

 

“Heartiest congratulations to Anchal Bhatheja of Bathinda, who has done us proud by becoming the first visually impaired lawyer to appear before the Supreme Court. I wish her all success,” Bathinda MP and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal posted on X.

 

Anchal said the exposure she had got was extremely satisfying, but fraught with difficulties owing to barriers in accessing legal documents. “Whether we talk about trial courts, high courts or the Supreme Court, the principal challenge for visually impaired persons is to access documents. We hope such issues are sorted out soon,” she said.

 

Speaking about the bias that visually impaired lawyers often face, Anchal said, “People doubt our ability to fight cases. They need to shed this mindset.”

 

Her first case before the Supreme Court dealt with a critical constitutional challenge to a recruitment notification issued by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission for the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division) under the Uttarakhand Judicial Service.

 

The notification dated May 16 this year offered reservations for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities but only under narrow categories of leprosy cured, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy, thereby excluding candidates with visual and locomotor disabilities.

 

Representing a petitioner, who is 100 per cent visually impaired, Anchal argued that such exclusion was arbitrary and violative of Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which mandated 4 per cent horizontal reservation across a broad range of disability categories.

 

Born with low vision due to birth complications and losing her eyesight completely just before her Class 10 exams due to retinopathy of prematurity, Anchal’s journey has been remarkable. She became the first visually challenged student to be admitted to the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, from where she graduated in 2023.