Law

The Karnataka government has circulated a draft, called the Karnataka Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Employment and Education Bill-2025, that promises significant reform in workplace and academic inclusion for persons with disabilities. Among the salient features, particularly noted is the mandatory 5 percent reservation in private establishments that employ 20 or more people, apart from a 10 percent reservation across all courses in educational institutions.

The draft bill, published in the official gazette on November 21, intends to bring the state's framework in line with international standards, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

5% Job Quota, Reasonable Accommodation and Penalties

The draft stipulates that private companies should set aside 5 per cent of the sanctioned posts in respect of direct recruitment and regularized posts for persons with disabilities. Employers are to allocate posts across the categories of disability based on a formula to be determined by the State Regulatory Authority, with annual reports on compliance becoming mandatory. Any unutilized posts can be carried forward for three recruitment cycles only, while exemptions will apply only where the essential duties of a job cannot be performed even after reasonable accommodation.

The Bill threatens severe penalty for violation, including fines ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 5 lakh, and publicizing of defaulters. Fraudulent disability claims may attract a fine of Rs 1 lakh and imprisonment up to two years. The Bill also incentivizes compliance through procurement incentives and certification.

It forbids discrimination in hiring, promotions, training, or workplace conditions, and it calls on employers to provide aids, flexible work arrangements, and modifications in infrastructure. The bill reads:

If an employer denies accommodation for undue hardship, reasons are to be given in writing and may be reviewed by the proposed State Regulatory Authority. Information concerning a disability is not to be disclosed except with informed consent unless this is necessary for safety reasons or for compliance with law. Employees who become disabled during employment cannot be demoted or dismissed and should be transferred or placed on supernumerary posts.

10% Reservation in Education and Accessibility Targets

Accordingly, the institutions would have to fill 10 percent of seats in each course with students with disabilities and provide accessibility at the time of admission, classes, and examinations. The provisions would include time extensions, scribes, and alternate question papers besides digital and physical access. Institutes will have to draw up Accessibility and Inclusion Plans within six months and achieve full accessibility in five years. Student benefits include five-year age relaxation and 5% cut-off relaxation; educational loans are likely to be made available at concessional rates and with simplified paperwork. There shall be a State Regulatory Authority and State Enforcement Authority to ensure compliance and monitor, through audits, complaints and their adjudication, and compensation. Every institution and organization shall designate trained grievance officers and different accessible complaint channels. The government has invited public objections and suggestions within 30 days, addressed to the Principal Secretary, Labour Department, Vikasa Soudha, Bengaluru.

In a path-breaking order to reinforce fundamental education, the Supreme Court of India has directed the Kerala government to open lower primary and upper primary schools in every locality where there is no government school at present-a strong reminder of the lingering gaps in access in a state hailed for its achievements in literacy.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant ordered the state to frame a comprehensive policy in three months to ensure primary education reaches all. The court’s observations came during a hearing in which the CJI pointed to the contradiction between Kerala being hailed for 100% literacy and the reality of areas without basic schooling facilities.

Schools Within Reach: 1 km for Lower Primary, 3 km for Upper Primary

As per the said order, the state is to ensure that:

A lower primary school within 1 km radius of every habitation

An upper primary school within 3 km

The government has been directed to identify suitable private buildings in areas where there are no school buildings, to run temporary classrooms. At the same time, Kerala will have to earmark funds to build permanent school buildings, said the court.

Retired Teachers to Step In Temporarily

It asked the state government to appoint retirees as teachers in the institutions till regular teachers are recruited to avoid the delay in beginning the academic sessions.

Local panchayats have been instructed to survey and submit the details of available land for new school infrastructure.

Comes Days After Kerala Declared Itself ‘Extreme Poverty-Free’

The intervention by the Supreme Court comes close on the heels of an announcement by the Kerala government headed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on November 1 — the state’s formation day — that Kerala had become the first state in India to eradicate extreme poverty.

The observations from the court have brought into focus the disconnect between Kerala's vaunted social indicators and realities on the ground in terms of access to education.

Education Equity: Ensuring

It is a directive that is expected to have far-reaching implications for children in remote and tribal regions, areas where long travel distances and lack of facilities have for years hindered school enrolments. From being traditionally regarded as a role model in education and human resource development, Kerala will henceforth have to accelerate the process of ensuring that each child has a school within walking distance, matching its literacy legacy with universal access.

This is significant funding for India's first such law school-led initiative. The VAP was conceptualized to reinforce representation, support, and the overall role of victims vis-à-vis the adverse criminal justice system through academic rigor combined with field engagement at the grassroots level and litigation support. It's an action project aimed at mitigating the crime-related difficulties at the grassroots level through expert legal intervention, counseling, and sustained community mobilization.

Why the Victim Advocacy Project Matters

It is very challenging for victims of crimes to get through different hurdles in court procedures and most often do not get the necessary legal aid and assistance. It is due to this that VAP tries to fill such gaps at every level of the legal procedure through systematic, professional, and sustained support in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Key Goals and Impact - Next Three Years

• Victim Support: Represent and support over 450 victims of crime at every stage, from the FIR stage, investigation to trial, appeal, and rehabilitation.
• Capacity Building: Develop a cadre of specialized litigation fellows and paralegals who will receive focused training in victim rights, court procedures, and trauma-informed engagement.
• Professional Mentorship: Ensures quality representation in a manner sensitive to ethical concerns through professional mentorship by leading senior advocates.
• Systemic Reform: Providing timely, evidence-based information to inform and support efforts for legal reform, policy enhancement, and increased institutional accountability. Scalable Model: Based on research and field practice, it will deliver a replicable and scalable model for victim advocacy-one which will then be leveraged across the country. 

A Transformative Vision for Law and Society While highlighting the importance of the said project, Prof. (Dr.) G.S. Bajpai, Vice-Chancellor, NLU Delhi, said, "This project represents a sea change in impactful ways that law universities can engage with society. With the Victim Advocacy Project, we are advancing not just research and training, but also justice, dignity, and empowerment on behalf of those who need it most." This, in effect, underlines the commitment of NLU Delhi to bridge gaps between legal scholarship and social impact as it furthers its reputation as a national leader in the domain of criminology, victimology, and justice reforms. 

Support in this regard from the Azim Premji Foundation underlines the timely requirement of well-resourced, victim-centric interventions. Thus, the grant will facilitate a multi-tiered program involving: Legal representation Counselling and psychosocial support Community engagement Training and capacity building Research and documentation This strong partnership reflects a shared vision in furthering equity, justice, and responsiveness of institutions in India. About CCV, NLU Delhi The Centre for Criminology and Victimology is India's premier institution dedicated to research, policy engagement, and training in criminology, victimology, and criminal justice reform. Through extensive national and international collaborations, CCV continues to contribute to pressing debates on policing, penal reform, victim rights, and restorative justice.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Election Commission on pleas challenging the Special Intensive Revision in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, but asked the petitioners why they were so apprehensive about the exercise.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said a constitutional authority was undertaking the voter clean-up exercise and there could be a functional deficiency that could be rectified.

"Why are you people so apprehensive? They (Election Commission) have to answer all such issues and they will. Some deficiencies will have to be rectified and so it's a case of rectification of deficiencies," the bench said.

"Look at the monsoons. It's not a uniform thing. Heavy rain happens during the time of this exercise in the state. The flood relief too will have to be managed by the BLOs. Tamil Nadu is an agricultural state so most people will not be available," he said.

"Christmas vacations will be declared, and most families will not be available to participate. There will be Pongal, which is celebrated in the state," he added.

To this, the Supreme Court said, some deficiencies as far as smooth conduct of SIR was concerned should be rectified. "It's a case of rectification of deficiencies. It's not a case in your favour." the bench said.

Sibal said that till now, only 4,000 forms under the form distribution phase had been digitalised out of 3.94 crore forms.

"If this is taken into account, lakhs of forms will not be able to digitalised. Period of filing of claims, objections and notice will overlap. Why this great hurry we don't understand. We all want the system to work. We are only giving suggestions," he said.

After the arguments, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Election Commission and granted two weeks to it for responding to the issues. The Court will hear the matter again on November 26.

The Supreme Court also sought a response from the poll body on an application filed challenging the just-concluded SIR in Bihar, where Assembly polls are underway.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan said, "The application seeks to direct the poll body not to determine citizenship since they don't have the authority."

He said the poll body was not releasing the 2003 voter list to the voters in Bihar. "If my family members' names are there, I should be able to see it in the list," he said.

To this, the Supreme Court said, "If you lock your house, it can still be broken, but would that be a justification for not locking the house? The Election Commission is entitled to have layers of privacy on the data."

 The poll body will publish the draft electoral rolls on December 9 and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7, 2026.

The campus in Mumbai is the last one to come up among the three Maharashtra National Law Universities. A project initiation ceremony for establishing the permanent campus of the Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai was held at Pahadi, Goregaon (West) on November 5.

Chief Justice of India BR Gavai said during the function,

It is said, "MNLU Mumbai was the first one to be started, it is the last wherein the campus is being constructed. Nagpur campus as well as the Aurangabad campus were completed much earlier but it is said that der se aaye magar durust aaye and that I think aptly applies to the present project."

"I always said that the criticism is not based on correct facts. In my career as a judge for 22 years, I have seen the public works department in Maharashtra being transformed. You have many buildings being constructed for the district courts for the tehsil courts at various places. Be it Nashik, be it Kolhapur, Amravati, Nagpur.we inaugurated a building at Nashik and I must say that it is a building which could rival any corporate office.I have travelled across various parts of the country and the infrastructure provided to the judiciary by Maharashtra is one of the best and I must pay compliments to the government of Maharashtra for that."

On the judiciary needing support from the other wings of democracy, Justice Gavai said,

"I'd always disbelieved the practice of isolation because in my view, all the wings of the democracy-the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature-they exist for the welfare of the citizens of this country. It is always said that the judiciary has neither the power of sword nor the power of purse and unless the executive is on board, it is difficult for the judiciary to provide adequate infrastructure to the judiciary as well as the legal education."

Addressing the students of MNLU Mumbai, Justice Gavai said,

"Law is an evolving, organic, developing branch. Everyday, new challenges are there.in our days, the law colleges as has been said in the Malimath Committee Report, were the factories for producing half-baked lawyers. That concept has undergone a paradigm shift. Now the law education is based on practical oriented training. When I attend the moot court, at times I feel that the students are arguing much better than the lawyers arguing before the court. Therefore, the infrastructure plays a very important role."

Commenting on the proposed infrastructure of the MNLU campus he said,

"We look forward to converting it into an international law university."

He also urged students to join litigation, where "real pleasure" lies.

"Maybe in a place like Bombay and Delhi there's a scope for specialized litigation. As Dr. Ambedkar used to always say, a lawyer is also a social engineer. He also has a role in bringing the social and economic justice, the promise of social and economic justice into reality. I am sure that the students who will be passing out from this University will pass out and become the social engineers, the torchbearers of the social and economic justice who have deep commitment to the values enshrined in our Constitution."

The submission was made on behalf of Broadband India Forum before Justice Amit Bansal during the hearing of the copyright infringement suit by Asian News International (ANI) against OpenAI.

Broadband India Forum, a think tank working on the development of the broadband ecosystem, on Friday said that freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 of the Constitution includes the right to receive information and AI tools like ChatGPT cannot be restrained from using media reports/original data to answer user queries.

The submission was made by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal before Justice Amit Bansal during the hearing of Asian News International's copyright infringement suit against OpenAI.

Opposing the grant of any interim injunction against ChatGPT, Sibal said people have a fundamental right to the best means of imparting and receiving information.

"The right to receive information is a specie of the right of freedom of speech, an expression guaranteed under Article 19, a citizen has a fundamental right to use the best means of imparting and receiving information. It is the citizens right that is being violated. You say that 'no you can't access what I put in public domain without any restrictions'," Sibal, who appeared for the think tank said.

ANI's suit claimed that OpenAI was using its original content to make money and to train ChatGPT to answer user queries. In its reply, OpenAI stated that copyright protection in news reporting is very narrow, since there exists a greater public interest in dissemination of information.

The Court has earlier heard many intervenors in the case, including the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) which accused OpenAI of infringing the rights of media organisations by training ChatGPT on the basis of online news reports.

Today, Sibal submitted that the application seeking interim injunction against ChatGPT cannot be allowed as facts about the working of Large Language Models (LLM) are not there before the Court.

"Politician gives a speech in 1980. News channel records it. Access is available. In 1992, he gives another speech. A speech to the contrary. Most people will not have access to it. LLM will answer by prompt. Data cannot be copyrighted. Injunction cannot be granted as facts are not before you," he said.

Sibal said the technology is still evolving and that Court must not injunct the change.

"The copyright law couldn't have envisioned that large language models could be conceived in this fashion and being used for the purposes of change. Change is inherent in every aspect of life. You can't injunct change," he said.

The senior counsel argued that the decision should be according to constitutional rights, even if it is a commercial dispute.

"Please have Article 19(2) of the Constitution. None of the exceptions apply. I am entitled under Article 19 to protect my right to access information. It is my fundamental right," he added.

He said that restricting the same will amount to violation of free speech under Article 19.

"The public has right to access. A person who sought that prompt has a fundamental right to find out about the contradiction. How will anyone research if someone has contradicted himself in a speech. If there is any law that restricts this right, it will be a violation of Article 19," he told the Court.

Sibal also contended that the mere act of storage would not infringe the provisions of the Copyright Act.

"The purpose of LLM is not to reproduce. The intent to store is to use the data. I must reproduce under Section 14 for copyright infringement. Act of storage is not an infringement. What do I store? A speech, a math formula, data on climate and reproduce it, is it a copyright if I use it for progress of science?," he submitted.

In his arguments, Sibal also reflected on the use of paywall by news organizations to regulate access to news on their sites.

"How do you stop the circulation of ideas? If you say, whatever I have on my channel, you can't even look at, you can restrict it. It is all commercialisation, gone are the days of freedom of speech. I want to read an article from Indian Express, I can't. It is the only vehicle of political discourse so essential to democracy," he submitted.

Sibal said there was an element of public interest in the promotion of LLMs because people can now have access to information very fast.

"Earlier we had to go to libraries, now we can get information in a jiffy. So much easier now, this should be supported. You can't stall progress. At this stage, granting any kind of injunction will destroy the very process of change which is inevitable."

The senior counsel also argued that what is involved in this matter is an issue of public policy.

"How different jurisdictions in the global community use AI in the context of their peculiar interests and concerns is a matter of policy. Different jurisdictions may use it differently. The matter of policy is really in the domain of government," he said.

At this point, Justice Bansal asked: "If the intent of the state is to encourage LLMs and use of artificial intelligence, what prevents the State from amending the copyright law?." Sibal said that the government might do so. Earlier, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar also argued for Broadband India Forum. He submitted that any injunction would cause irreparable harm as LLMs enable the public, particularly in India, to have access to wider information. The large language model helps a lawyer, may help a doctor, a student appearing for a UPSC exam, he added. "You can have transient storage. The LLM is accessing and integrating. Application for injunction should be dismissed. The Courts have held that in IPR matters, the nature of dispute may not be only between parties, it can have larger ramifications," Datar said. The next date of hearing in the matter is November 21. Today, the Court said another date for the hearing would fall sometime in January 2026. The suit was filed in November 2024.