IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
ORIGINAL WRIT JURISDICTION
WRIT PETITION (CIVIL)
(Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India)
(Public Interest Litigation)
IN THE MATTER OF:
Aman Azad
Founder
News4Deaf
Petitioner
VERSUS
Union of India
Through the Secretary,
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment,
Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD),
New Delhi
TO,
THE HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA AND HIS COMPANION JUSTICES OF THE HONOURABLE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA.
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE PETITIONER ABOVENAMED
MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:
1. THE CORE ISSUE: THE URGENT NEED FOR VIDEO KYC AND LIFELONG SUPPORT
I most respectfully approach this Honourable Court to highlight a massive systemic failure in how the government delivers welfare schemes to disabled citizens (Divyangjan). The primary focus of this Public Interest Litigation is the urgent constitutional need to implement Video KYC and remote digital verification. It is truly heartbreaking that in today’s digital age, disabled people still cannot easily apply for central and state government schemes online.
Currently, the ground reality is very tough: the government forces severely disabled people to physically travel to the District Collector or other government offices, or provide physical fingerprints on offline biometric machines just to submit a simple form or check an application status. This physical barrier completely defeats the purpose of disability welfare and must be replaced by remote smartphone verification.
Additionally, I wish to shed light on the unfair age brackets imposed on disability schemes. Disability is a lifelong reality. It does not magically begin at 18 years of age, nor does a person stop needing specialized care when they turn 60. Currently, the system heavily restricts disability welfare schemes benefits for those outside the 18 to 60 years age bracket, often downgrading their benefits into general “old-age” pensions later in life.
A disabled person requires specialized, uninterrupted care from birth until death, and these arbitrary age limits must be permanently removed.
2. THE REAL-LIFE SUFFERING: SMT. ###### AND THE CAREGIVER’S STRUGGLE
To show Your Lordships the heartbreaking ground reality of this problem, I present the case of my close friend, Smt. #####. She is a 60-plus-year-old single mother, working in a major company. She is the sole caregiver for her 30 year-old mentally challenged daughter.
Because her daughter requires constant, intensive care, Smt. ##### simply cannot physically visit government offices, leave her alone at home, or wait in long queues. As a result, she has never received a single rupee of government support, a failure of the offline system that persisted even after I personally escalated her case to a state Disability Minister many years back.
Through her, I met many other parents of disabled children and realized that millions of families face the exact same struggle. Many are poor, uneducated, or simply unable to leave their homes to chase paperwork in government offices.
3. THE CURRENT STRUGGLE: PHYSICAL, FINANCIAL BARRIERS
The absence of a remote Video KYC facility places an unconstitutional and impossible burden on disabled citizens and their families through three distinct barriers:
Physical and Financial Hardship: Traveling to government offices is expensive and physically exhausting for a disabled person.
Loss of Income: Many disabled people come from poor families and rely on busy relatives or single mothers. These caregivers simply cannot afford to miss a day of daily wage work to run around government offices to fill out disability benefit scheme forms.
Difficult Language: When users try to apply online, scheme details are hidden inside heavy, 10 to 25-page documents. The language is so difficult that ordinary, uneducated people cannot understand it. They literally have to find lawyers or agents just to explain what the scheme means.
4. SYSTEMIC FAILURES AND TRAGIC LOSS OF LIFE IN THE 18 TO 60 DEMOGRAPHIC
Forcing a disabled person to physically travel or provide offline physical biometrics for verification is not just a small inconvenience, it is a matter of life and death. I place before this Honourable Court the verified records of disabled citizens specifically who suffered greatly, or lost their lives, because the offline physical verification system failed them:
1. Raj Kumar (Age 30) Dehradun, Uttarakhand (2017)
A 30-year-old man born with a 60% disability that rendered his limbs immobile and left him unable to speak or move. His disability pension was stopped because offline biometric machines failed to record his fingerprints and iris scan. His caregiver (mother) was physically unable to keep transporting him to repeated verification camps, cutting him off from survival funds because the system could not accommodate his physical disability.
Newspaper/Source: The Times of India
2. Rankanidhi Khura (Age 39) Kalahandi, Odisha (2017)
A 39-year-old man with severe mental disabilities who lived with his family. Due to his cognitive condition, he was unable to navigate the complex, offline bureaucratic requirements needed to link his identity to the Public Distribution System (PDS) or social security networks. This exclusion from state entitlements led to severe deprivation and, ultimately, death by starvation.
Newspaper/Source: The Wire & Rethink Aadhaar
3. Sakina Ashfaq (Age 50) Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh (2017)
A 50-year-old paralyzed woman died of starvation after her family was denied their monthly food ration. The offline system rigidly demanded her physical presence at the ration shop to authenticate her fingerprint on an e-POS machine. Because her severe paralysis made it physically impossible for her to be carried to the shop, the State denied her food, resulting in her death.
Newspaper/Sources: Sabrang India & NewsClick
Links:
https://sabrangindia.in/sordid-tale-starvation-how-govt-negligence-caused-deaths-hunger-jharkhand/
4. Vallem Joga Rao (Age 50) Tuni, Andhra Pradesh (2022)
A 50-year-old man suffering from 90% paralysis was denied his rightful disability pension due to a government database error linking his identity details to another citizen. Because remote verification was not an option, the offline grievance system forced a man with 90% paralysis to physically travel and submit paper petitions to prove his identity, locking him out of his survival benefits for an extended period.
Newspaper/Source: The New Indian Express
5. Mohammad Pappu (Age: Adult/Under 60) Patna, Bihar (2020)
A physically disabled man (mobility-impaired/crawler) was denied food rations under the public distribution system. He was excluded because the distribution center lacked accessibility infrastructure, and the offline authentication required him to navigate a physical space he could not access, effectively denying him his food entitlements.
Newspaper/Source: The Wire
Link:
https://m.thewire.in/article/rights/bihar-elections-persons-with-disability-problems-accessibility
6. Sudama Pandey (Age: Adult/Under 60) Khunti, Jharkhand (2017)
A man suffering from severe mental disability. He was unable to obtain a bank account or complete the physical verification processes required for welfare because of his condition. Consequently, he was denied access to rations and social-security benefits. His exclusion from these welfare safety nets resulted in prolonged deprivation and his eventual death.
Newspaper/Source: Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP)
Link:
https://cjp.org.in/adivasi-woman-dies-in-jharkhand-as-aadhaar-crumbles-like-a-house-of-cards/
5. WHY THE HONOURABLE COURT MUST INTERVENE
A. Right to Equality (Article 14): The current system is deeply unfair. The very physical or mental limitation that makes a person disabled is being used by the bureaucracy as a reason to stop them from getting help.
B. Right to Life and Dignity (Article 21):
Denying basic food and pension to a disabled person because they cannot physically travel to an office or pass an offline physical fingerprint scanner is a direct violation of their fundamental right to life.
C. The Need for Video KYC: Nowadays, major banks are happily giving out loans by completing “Video KYC” directly on a mobile phone, If banks can easily verify customers this way, the government can also use Video KYC to verify the eligibility of a disabled person.
Bringing this system to the DEPwD would mean disabled citizens never have to travel for physical verification again.
6. THE SOLUTION: A “MADE IN INDIA” APP AS PROOF OF CONCEPT
Seeing this struggle, I realized we needed a change. Since no app currently exists in India to solve this problem, I have built a mobile app to automate and simplify the entire process for our disabled community.
I offer this fully working Demo App strictly as a PROOF OF CONCEPT to prove that making government schemes easy and accessible from home is 100% possible. This app is truly a game changer; it brings the government office straight into their mobile phones, meaning disabled persons and their parents can finally apply for the schemes they deserve without leaving their homes, standing in queues, or begging for help. I wish to offer this app to the relevant government departments for the betterment of disabled people.
The Proof of Concept App I developed demonstrates the following capabilities:
Simple to Understand: My app takes complex 25-page government files and explains the schemes in just a few simple lines so anyone can understand what help they can get.
Smart Scanning: The user just scans their UDID (disability) card with their phone camera. The app instantly shows all the Central and State Government schemes available for their specific state location.
Auto Fill Magic: The app automatically reads the card and fills the Name and Disability Card Number right into the form.
100% Safe and Private: All the UDID card reading happens directly on the user’s phone. No personal data is ever sent to our servers. Furthermore, the actual application connects securely and directly to the official DEPwD website.
I am in contact with the central government to bring all scheme applications completely online and allow verification to be done digitally via Video KYC.
7. PETITIONER’S LOCUS STANDI
I, Aman Azad, approach this Honourable Court as a public-spirited citizen to fight for the fundamental rights of millions of disabled citizens in India. I have dedicated my life to ensuring disabled individuals can live happy, dignified, and content lives. I have previously filed few Public Interest Litigation for disabled people rights.
I have developed the world’s first SOS App for the deaf community. To ensure it functions on low-bandwidth networks in emergencies, I specifically designed it to be strictly text and location-based, omitting heavy video-calling features. It is currently available on the Google Play Store, connecting vulnerable individuals to the nearest police stations across 109 countries.
I have no personal or commercial interest in this petition; my sole objective is to dismantle the systemic bureaucratic barriers that currently deprive disabled citizens of their fundamental right to survival.
8. PRAYERS
In light of the above facts and the tragic loss of lives, I most humbly pray that Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a WRIT OF MANDAMUS or any other appropriate writ, order, or direction to:
A. Direct Respondent (Union of India, Depwd Department) to immediately start using “Video KYC” and remote smartphone UDID scanning for all disability welfare schemes across India, permanently ending the rule of physical presence and offline biometric authentication.
B. Direct Depwd to remove all arbitrary age limits on disability welfare schemes, ensuring disabled citizens receive their specialized benefits seamlessly from birth until death.
C. Allow Smt. ##### the mother of mentally challenged daughter to physically testify before this Honourable Court, so the judges can hear firsthand the massive struggles faced by caregivers of mentally challenged individuals due to the lack of Video KYC.
D. Form an expert committee to examine my Demo App as a Proof of Concept, to guide the government in making their scheme applications fully online, simple to read, and accessible from home.
E. Issue a WRIT OF MANDAMUS or any other appropriate writ, order, or direction to (Union of India) to remove all arbitrary age restrictions on disability welfare schemes, declaring that financial assistance and specialized benefits must be provided seamlessly to disabled citizens from the time of birth until death; and further direct that disability pensions shall not be withheld from minors under 18 years of age, nor shall they be discontinued or downgraded into lesser general old-age pensions when a beneficiary crosses 60 years of age, thereby ensuring uninterrupted lifelong support.
F. Pass any other orders that this Honourable Court may feel are right and just for the benefit of disabled citizens.
AND FOR THIS ACT OF KINDNESS, I SHALL EVER PRAY.
FILED BY:
AMAN AZAD
Founder
News4Deaf
