NHRC discusses human rights violations arising from re-verification of certificates of govt. employees with disabilities

NHRC recommends targeted scrutiny over mass re-verification of government employees with disabilities to prevent human rights violations.

Citing the human rights violations emerging from the re-verification or re-assessment of certificates of government employees with disabilities, Justice V. Ramasubramanian (retd.), Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, on Wednesday (January 28, 2026), said that scrutiny should be done only in cases of a specific suspicion instead of mass re-verification of all employees with disability.

The recommendation of the NHRC Chief came during a core group meeting of the body following an advisory issued by the Centre on disability verification in government jobs/education.

Stating that it is understandable that the government’s advisory and revised standard operating protocol (SOP) for handling disability verification in government jobs/education, issued in October 2025, was meant for applying prospectively only for the new applicants and not retrospectively to reassess all existing beneficiaries, the NHRC Chairperson said applying the SOP retrospectively for all of them may have legal implications.

“Therefore, instead of mass verification, the scrutiny should be limited to cases where there is a specific suspicion,” he said.

He pointed out concerns where some deserving persons with disabilities may not get the benefits of schemes or that there could be instances of misuse of beneficiary legislation.

Vijaya Bharathi Sayani, NHRC member, said, “disability is not something that should be repeatedly proven. Repeated re-verification of persons with disabilities is causing anxiety, fear and insecurity, particularly about job continuity.”