Sujata Bora Vs Coal India Limited & Ors. (Supreme Court of India)
Reasonable Accommodation Is a Fundamental Right: Supreme Court Orders Coal India to Appoint Visually Disabled Woman by Creating Supernumerary Post
The Supreme Court allowed the appeal of a visually disabled woman candidate and set aside the Calcutta High Court Division Bench judgment, holding that denial of appointment by Coal India Limited (CIL) violated the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and the constitutional mandate of substantive equality.
The appellant had applied in 2019 for the post of Management Trainee (Personnel & HR) under the Visually Handicapped category and was selected up to the stage of Initial Medical Examination (IME), where she was declared unfit on the ground of multiple disabilities. A Single Judge of the High Court quashed the IME and granted limited relief by allowing her participation in the next recruitment cycle, but the Division Bench reversed this relief citing expiry of the panel.
The Supreme Court found this approach legally unsustainable. Acting on its own directions, the Court constituted an AIIMS Medical Board, whose report dated 01.01.2026 certified the appellant as having 57% disability, well above the benchmark disability of 40%. The Court held that the appellant was wrongly denied employment in the first instance without any fault on her part, and that technicalities like panel expiry cannot defeat substantive rights.
