MUMBAI, INDIA, Nov 11: Granting major relief to physically disabled persons of all categories, the Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to allot tenements to all those defined as disabled under the Persons with Physical Disabilities Act.

Thus the 40 flats, which were reserved for the disabled from the lottery announced in May, can now be allotted to persons from all categories instead of limiting the disability to visually, hearing and speech impaired people.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice RS Dalvi, while granting more time to MHADA to implement their previous orders of reserving 3% of the total allotments for physically disabled persons, instead of the 2% set aside by the court earlier, stated that the reservation should be as per the Act.

Advocate GW Mattos, appearing for MHADA, informed the court “the resolution is passed and the amendment will be enforced at the earliest.”

The directions are likely to help a lot of people who are seeking affordable homes from MHADA. Earlier, the high court, without staying the lottery process, had directed Mhada to make additional 1% reservation for persons with physical disability. As a result, 40 of 4,034 flats were kept aside.

The court passed this order while hearing a petition by the Indian Centre for Human Rights and Law and others. The petition alleged that the state did not comply with Section 43 of the Persons with Disabilities Act (Equal Opportunities) — the policy to reserve 3% of the total number of flats for the disabled.

After the high court order, MHADA sold 3,849 flats and 185 flats were held back as they were reserved under quotas for the chief minister, physically disabled people, and MPs and MLAs.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com