Complaint filed against Smita Sabharwal at DoPT and NHRC

Hyderabad: Social activist Bakka Judson approached the department of personnel and training (DoPT) and the national human rights commission (NHRC) on Monday, July 22, against Smita Sabharwal, member secretary of Telangana finance commission, seeking action against her as per Section 92 of The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD), 2016; after she voiced her opinion on the need for persons with disability quota in the All India Services.

Section 92 of the Act discusses the punishment for atrocities against persons with disability for 6 months, extendable to 5 years with or without a fine.

Smita Sabharwal had posted on her X handle on Sunday, questioning whether there was a need for quota in the AIS (IAS/IPS/IFoS).

“She is mentally ill. She spent 15 lakhs of public money for her defamation case in the High Court, where the Honourable Telangana High Court directed her to return back the money, but she approached the Supreme Court where she didn’t want to return the money. We cannot expect good tweets from her,” Judson wrote in his grievance submitted online to both DoPT and NHRC on Monday.

Judson himself is a person with having locomotor disability, who has served as the former chairperson of the Vikalangula cooperative finance corporation in the undivided Andhra Pradesh.

Activist stage protest

Activists of the national platform for the rights of the disabled (NPRD) staged a protest at the RTC X Roads on Monday, demanding Smita Sabharwal to tender her apology to the differently-abled community.

Questioning what right she had in commenting on the quota that was guaranteed to differently-abled persons by the Constitution of India, the activists demanded action against her for her comments.

“I don’t know under what state of mind she made those comments, but as a senior officer, she should have known that there have been directions from the Supreme Court on the implementation of quota for persons with disabilities in the central services including the Indian Administrative Service,” said M Adivaiah, state secretary, NPRD.

Responding to her question whether one would trust a surgeon with a disability, he reminded her of Mumbai-based Oncologist Dr Suresh Advani, who excelled in his profession, and many personalities like Louis Braille, Helen Keller and Stephen Hawking just to name a few, who defied their disability with their work.