Kerala High Court: In a writ petition concerning the scholarship provided to students with disabilities, the division bench comprising Nitin Jamdar*, CJ., and S. Manu, J., directed the State to meticulously implement its 2015 policy for persons with disabilities. Under this policy, the State had announced a Scheme for the distribution of monthly scholarships to eligible students with disabilities.
Background
In 2015, the State of Kerala formulated a policy to address the needs of persons with disabilities, which included establishing a coordinated management system, developing capacity-building strategies, and creating State-level structures like the Department of Disability Affairs. In 2017, the State issued a Government Order to implement welfare measures through Local Self Government Institutions (‘LSGIs’), with specific guidelines for supporting persons with disabilities, particularly students. These guidelines were incorporated into the 13th Five-Year Plan (2017-2022).
Key provisions in the guidelines included the maintenance of a disability database by the Social Security Department, free distribution of items and instruments, and ensuring timely disbursement of scholarships to eligible students with disabilities. Circulars issued in 2018 and 2019 stressed the importance of uninterrupted scholarship disbursements and required LSGIs to allocate sufficient funds.
In 2020, further guidelines were issued to ensure scholarships and allowances were given to all eligible children on time, with funding allocated across local government tiers. A Government Order issued in 2022 allowed for inter-tier fund transfers to cover funding shortfalls.
The petitioner’s primary grievance is the failure to disburse scholarships to eligible students as per the guidelines. The petitioner has called on State Authorities to ensure timely and continuous scholarship disbursements, starting from April 2019, and the enforcement of earlier issued Circulars.
Analysis and Decision
The Court noted that the Circular dated 19-01-2025 states that the LSGIs were allowed to provide scholarships and allowances to eligible students as part of the annual plan and the LSGIs were requested to undertake projects for this purpose.
The Court expressed serious concern over the non-implementation of the beneficial scheme for students with disabilities, noting that the State does not even have complete data on eligible beneficiaries. The lack of proper data hampers effective monitoring by the Local Self Government Department (‘LSGD’), and despite the issuance of several Circulars, the scheme has faced delays and lapses in execution by LSGIs. The Court highlighted that eligible students continue to face obstacles due to inefficiencies in identification, lack of monitoring, and delays in financial assistance, ultimately depriving students of essential support for their education and well-being.
The Court emphasised that the State’s benevolent policy should not be undermined by the apathy and negligence of implementation officers at the local level. The State was obligated to ensure proper implementation and take action against non-compliance. The Court directed the State to enforce strict adherence to the Government Circulars and establish consequences for breaches, including placing responsibility on the LSGIs for the timely disbursement of scholarships and allowances.
The Court stressed that monitoring should be conducted regularly with updates to the lists of eligible students, ensuring transparency through the publication of beneficiary lists and financial disbursements on official websites. A mechanism must be created to address instances of non-compliance by the Panchayats, ensuring that implementation failures are immediately rectified.
Accordingly, the court issued the following directions:
(a) All LSGIs in the State were directed to scrupulously follow the Circular dated 19-01-2025, issued by the Special Secretary, Local Self-Government (DA) Department, Government of Kerala. In case of failure to comply with the directions in the Circular, the State was entitled to take deterrent and punitive action against the defaulting officers, including the Secretaries of the LSGIs, in accordance with the law.
(b) The Principal Secretary, LSGD, was directed to nominate a senior officer or Secretary in the Local Self Government Department to ensure compliance with the directions contained in the Circular dated 19-01-2025. If compliance was not met, the nominated officer was instructed to recommend necessary deterrent action and ensure adherence to the directives.
(c) The Deputy Director of the LSGD at the district level was appointed as the Nodal Officer to ensure that the directions in the Circular dated 19-01-2025, as well as the policy of the State Government under the 14th Five-Year Plan concerning scholarships, were complied with by the LSGIs in their jurisdiction.
(d) In case of failure on the part of the Panchayats or LSGIs, the Deputy Director, LSGD, the district-level Nodal Officer, was directed to report the issue to the State-level Nodal Officer.
(e) The Deputy Director, LSGD, the district-level Nodal Officer, was instructed to address issues related to non-receipt of scholarships as per the Scheme, and issue necessary directions to the LSGIs for resolution. If the Nodal Officer was not legally competent to do so, the issue was to be forwarded to the State-level Nodal Officer for further directions.
(f) The State was directed to issue orders for the creation or designation of Nodal Officers at the State and district levels within four weeks and circulate the orders amongst all the LSGDs.
(g) The order of the district-level Nodal Officer regarding the grievance of non-receipt of scholarships was to be given publicity to enable eligible students to approach the district-level Nodal Officer as the first point of contact.
[Martin Paul v. State of Kerala, Writ Petition (C) No. 9961 of 2019, decided on 28-03-2025]
*Judgment Authored by: Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioner: Santhosh Mathew (Sr.), Arun Thomas, Jennis Stephen, Vijay V. Paul, Karthika Maria, Anil Sebastian Pulickel, Divya Sara George, Jaisy Elza Joe
For Respondent: Issac M.Perumpilli, Varghese C.Kuriakose, G.Santhosh Kumar (P), Dinesh Mathew J.Muricken, Anoop.V.Nair, .K.S.Arun Kumar, V.A.Vinod, Babu Karukapadath, Mathew B. Kurian, K.T.Thomas, M.A.Vaheeda Babu, Justine Jacob, P.G.Jose, V.P.Poulose Nikitha Antony, Resmi Thomas, P.U.Vinod Kumar A.P.Beelamma, Avinash P Raveendran Amrutha K P, Arya Raghunath , Amrutha P S , V. Tekchand, SR. GP
