The Supreme Court today asked the Centre and the states to "rise to the occasion" and work for eradication of "curable" leprosy, besides removing the archaic provisions from 119 laws that discriminate against and stigmatise those affected.
"The Centre and states shall rise to the occasion and act to eradicate the disease. Leprosy is a curable disease in the obtaining circumstances," the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said, adding that the Central government "shall take it up with states".
It considered the submission of Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand that the Centre was taking steps to ensure deletion of certain provisions from a number of enactments as these "cast stigma on persons suffering from leprosy".
The bench asked the states to file a report along with compliance affidavit in six weeks giving details about the steps taken to remove objectionable provisions from various statutes which discriminated against the persons suffering from the disease.
The bench was hearing a PIL of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy (VCLP) which has listed 119 state and central laws that discriminate against leprosy patients and stigmatise them.
Such outdated provisions denied them access to public services, impose disqualifications on them under personal laws and prohibited them from occupying or standing for public posts or office, the plea has said.
It referred to one such provision of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 that allows dissolution of marriage if one of the partners has been "suffering from a virulent and incurable form of leprosy."
Similarly, Section 2 of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act 1939 and Section 27 of the Special Marriage Act 1954, Section 18 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956; Section 18 of the Jammu And Kashmir Hindu Adoptions And Maintenance Act 1960; Section 13 of the Jammu And Kashmir Hindu Marriage Act 1980 and Section 2 of the Jammu And Kashmir Dissolution Of Muslim Marriages Act 1999 perpetuate the stigmatisation of those affected by leprosy, it has said.
While taking note of the PIL, the court said the "seminal issue" was that there was no justification to treat a person suffering from leprosy as one to be kept away from the mainstream and made to suffer from ignominy that the disease is infectious and has something to do with genetics.
It also referred to Section 70(3)(b) of the Orissa Municipal Corporation Act, 2003 that disqualified a person affected by leprosy from contesting elections for the post of corporator of the Municipal Corporation on account of his or her affliction by leprosy.
Similarly, section 19(f) of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, disqualified a leprosy victim from contesting elections for the post of a Panch or any other member of the Panchayati Raj Institution.
Senior advocate Raju Ramchandran, appearing for VCLP, had said these provisions in the central and state laws violated the fundamental rights of persons affected by leprosy under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
"The provisions in these laws unfairly discriminate against persons affected by leprosy by denying them equal treatment under personal laws, in matters of employment and appointment or election to public office, as well as access to and free movement in public places," he had said.
He had referred to the Law Commission's 256th report and said it had recommended the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy.
The plea said this unequal treatment irrationally treated such persons as a separate class on the basis of a medically inaccurate and outdated conception of the infectious nature of the disease and without taking into account the effectiveness of the prevailing standard treatment for the disease.
It said the very existence of such provisions in the statute books violated the right to life with dignity of persons affected by leprosy, which is an integral facet of Article 21.
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