Delhi High Court Judgement for Driving License to Deaf People and Its Implications to the People with Monocular Vision

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Written by Admin

Published: 20 July 2015

Kuldeep Joshi, one of the persons who recently lost vision in one of his eyes due to an accident and faced issues with getting a driving license, shared a judgement of the Delhi High Court with regard to the driving license for the people who are deaf.

This judgement, appearing first in 2011, has some implications for the people with monocular vision as well.

The court, in its judgement, does not give any directive particularly with regard to barring the deaf people for a driving license. The last point from this order is worth quoting here and is produced as it is below:

"We will be failing in our duty if we do not note the other submission of Mr.Gonsalves that certain persons who are totally deaf have the capacity to drive vehicles. He has referred to prevalent practices in many other countries. The learned senior counsel has laid emphasis on the international standard. On a perusal of the policy decision, we find that the experts have fixed a standard regard being had to the Indian conditions. The grounds ascribed in the policy decision as Mr.Chandhiok, learned Additional Solicitor General, would submit are meant to protect the collective at large from the road accidents. Thus, the claim put forth by the petitioners that they should be granted driving licence and should not be debarred from getting a licence, per se, is not justified. As has been stated earlier, for grant of a learner‘s licence, filing of medical certificate is not required but the applicant is required to go through the test as stipulated under Rule 11 of the 1989 Rules. For grant of a driving licence, one has to satisfy the conditions precedent as postulated under Section 9 and pass the test as stipulated under Rule 15 of the 1989 Rules. The claim of further privilege by totally deaf persons as a special category, in our consideration, is not permissible. However, we are obliged to certify that if an applicant is totally deaf, he has to be called for the test if he applies for a learner‘s licence without the medical certificate and if he passes the test as required under Rule 11, he shall be granted the learner‘s licence as that is the statutory requirement. Similarly, if a person belonging to the said category satisfies the necessary criteria, he shall be allowed to obtain the licence. We are not inclined to direct that the special conditions which are permitted by other countries for grant of licence to the persons who are completely deaf as the same, we are disposed to think, is in the domain of the legislature, for the legislature understands the prevalent conditions in a set up where separation of power is an insegregable facet of the basic structure of the Constitution of India."

As we see here, if the deaf people are eligible to get a license, why should the people with monocular license have any issues in getting one? Considering that this a we are considered normal people, this discrimination is like denying a virtual basic rights guaranteed to us by the constitution itself.

Kuldeep gathered the following relevant interpretation from the judgement which "may take care of denial of of issuing Form 1A by medical officer and learners license or driving license by the RTO.

If we want to make a difference in the way we and many persons with similar issue are treated then I suggest all of us should think of taking up action on the following lines

1) Apply for learners license and get it endorsed for being rejected. (as even rejection of learners license is appeal able). You may choose to attach the judgment.
2) If the RTO is insisting of civil surgeon certificate, please ask RTO to provide the reference letter (addressed to the local authorised medical officer) to the applicant. Or let the RTO reject the application on the ground of absence of medical certificate.
3) If the medical officer refuses to certify the fitness, ask him to provide the reason in writing on the Form1-A. Ask them to note down result vision tests on the same form or any other written document
4) For medical officers, it is required to take acknowledgement of all the correspondence with them in writing.
5) The medical officer being a civil servant have to give in writing his opinion and reason for the same. You can use RTI effectively, to extract the required information from them. If the medical officer does not give the certificate or his opinion in writing we can sue him for deficiency of service in the appropriate consumer forum.
6) File a appeal with the transport commissioner for denial of learners license or driving license, use the high court judgment over there.From the document that I have read the fee for the appeal is Rs 25/-
7) If the transport commissioner rejects the appeal then you/we have done a solid groundwork and gathered enough documents to go for a writ petition in high court in case of an individual or PIL for the whole group of monocular vision persons.

You can refer to following links for the relevant acts:
www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/motorvehiclesact/motor-vehicles-act.html
http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/motorvehamndmnt/motor-vehicles-amendment-act-2000.html
http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/centrlmotr1989/centrlmotr.html

Each state may have its own set of rules, which you may please search.

Link to motor Maharashtra motor vehicle rules is

http://lawgic.info/maharashtra-motor-vehicles-rules-1989/

http://lawgic.info/maharashtra-motor-vehicles-rules-1989-chapter-2/

As I always say, god helps those who help themselves, we all should take the matters in our own hand and get what has been wrongly denied to many of us."

Google Group for Internal Discusssions

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Written by Admin

Published: 20 July 2015

Given that despite the precedents such as mine and one more (from Hyderabad who had a previous DL from the US), I have been getting quite a lot of queries over the years from people with monocular vision asking me how to proceed with getting a driving license.

I have a list of around 50 people who have sometime in the past contacted me either through email or by registering on this site. All of these people are from India and are in various service sectors, including central government services at higher positions.

I understand that one can get a DL by other means as well (such as going through the agent and somehow hiding their medical condition of being a person with a monocular vision). But this would be detrimental for various reasons. For example, in case of an accident, if you had a driving license that did not mention your medical condition, the insurance claim may get void. Apart from the fact that not mentioning your medical condition would be an illegal thing you would be doing which if found, be chargeable under the penal code of India and also other countries.

Therefore, this is high time all people with monocular vision should come together and put a concentrated fight that gives a clear instruction to the government RTOs that people with monocular vision should never be disallowed from getting a driving license on the ground being a person with monocular vision.

Apart from being a support group for people with monocular vision, we also plan to create formal association with a clear mission to either make amendments in the relevant acts or get a clear order from the government or the court notifying all the RTOs that one should not be disallowed to get a DL on sole ground of being a person with monocular vision.

I request all the people having monocular vision to be part of this group.

To join the group, go to the following link:

http://groups.google.com/d/forum/monocular

and click on "Apply for membership".

Please note

 - that this is a closed group and any posted here would not viewed publically.

- you must be a member of this group to post, reply and view the posts in this group.

- You can share your details without any qualms as this is going to remain a closed group.

What does Research Say on Driving with Monocular Vision

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Written by Admin

Published: 20 July 2015

The people with monocular vision in India have been facing a great hurdle in getting a driving license.

The Motor Vehicle Act in India is rather clear to a great lot with respect to allowing the people with monocular vision to drive. I have stated this several times through other posts on this site.

What does the research community say on safe driving for people with monocular vision? Thanks to Kuldeep Joshi, I have come across a few relevant research articles, mostly from the ophthalmologists from the US. Below I provide links to some of such articles.

But before I do that, let me point out a few pointers here. One of the articles, by Oswey and McGin (1999), has the following to say about driving for people with monocular vision:

"The driving performance among drivers with real monocular vision has been assessed in a number of other studies. In a study of 10,000 drivers, Johnson and Keltner reported that drivers with monocular visual field loss had a crash rate equal to that of a control group of drivers with both eyes. Smaller studies by Edwards and Schachat and McKnight et al reported results consistent with these findings. However, not all studies support the conclusion that monocularity does not create a safety problem. From an unmarked police car, Liesmaa observed drivers’ behavior during overtaking another car or entering a road junction. Drivers who were considered dangerous were stopped, and their vision was assessed. A control group of nondangerous drivers was also stopped. The authors reported that there were three times as many one-eyed drivers among the dangerous drivers than among the control drivers. Keeney reported that monocularity was more common among a group of drivers with various driving transgressions than among patients in a general ophthalmologic practice. Based on their review of the literature, Keeney and Garvey concluded that monocular drivers should not be licensed to drive commercial vehicles."

Please note this article was published in 1999 and is based on several case studies.

Some of the take-aways from the articles listed below are as follows:

- Driving with monocular vision is safe with no issue for public safety

- Driving commercial vehicles (like heave trucks) is at best 'controversial' and not prohibitory.

- The functional peripheral vision required for driving is met by all the people having normal vision in at least one eye.

Owsley-McGwin. 1999. Public Health and the Eye
Dobbs. NSTS. 2005. Medical Conditions and Driving - A Review of Literature (1960-2000)
International Council of Ophthalmology. 2006. Vision Requirements for Driving Safety
Ihrig and Schaefer. 2007. Acquired Monocular Vision Rehabilitation program
Catharine Chisholm. 2008. Visual Requirements for Driving
EliPeli. 2008. Driving with low vision-who where when and why
Bron etal. 2010. International vision requirements for driver licensing and disability pensions
Owsley and McGwin. 2010. Vision and Driving

Nawab of Pataudi (Cricketer)

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Written by Admin

Published: 03 May 2015

Nawab of Pataudi

Mansoor Ali Pataudi, the greatest Test Cricketer of India lost the vision in his right eye at an age of 20. Later he went on to become the greatest Test Cricketer India produced and married the Bollywood Actress Sharmila Tagore and fathered Saif Ali Khan!