India, Sept. 1 -- The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to carve out a separate reservation for totally-blind candidates within the 1% quota earmarked for "blindness and low vision" under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The court directed the state government to take concrete steps within four months to enhance the participation of such candidates in public employment.

A division bench of chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice Sandeep V Marne held that section 34(1)(a) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act does not permit the sub-classification of quotas within benchmark disabilities (disabilities where people have a degree of impairment). The same rule applies to other benchmark disabilities such as the 'dea...