India’s first blind judge-select requires devices in courts to make justice accessible | Kerala Information

Kannur: Former classmates of Thanya Nathan C, who gained the Kerala Women’s Commission’s ‘Sthree Shakthi’ award on Monday, should not stunned that she cleared the Kerala Judicial Service Examination on her first try, to turn into, maybe, the nation’s first visually impaired civil decide and Justice of the Peace.

She was the topper of the 2019-2024 batch at Kannur University’s School of Legal Studies on Dr Janaki Ammal campus at Palayad close to Dharmadom. 

The girls’s panel on Monday named her amongst six recipients for the 2025 ‘Sthree Shakthi’ Award to be introduced on International Women’s Day

“She would have cleared the exam even without a quota. The Supreme Court judgment only removed the barrier imposed on the blind,” mentioned a former classmate who now practises in Kochi.

He remembers her as the primary to succeed in class and somebody who by no means missed even one lecture. For 5 years, she constantly scored 20 out of 20 in inner assessments, the one pupil within the batch to take action. “It was never sympathy. It was sheer hard work,” he mentioned.

For years, Kerala’s judicial service reserved a single publish within the munsiff-magistrate cadre for individuals with 40% and above (benchmark) disabilities below the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act. But the vacant publish was typically carried ahead for “want of an eligible candidate”, in keeping with notifications issued yr after yr.

This yr, out of 56 vacancies, one seat was once more earmarked for individuals with benchmark disabilities. Thanya was chosen.

Her appointment follows a March 2025 ruling of the Supreme Court that struck down a rule in Madhya Pradesh barring visually impaired candidates from judicial service. “No candidate can be denied consideration solely on account of their disability,” dominated a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan in a case the Supreme Court took up by itself.

“Before the judgment, there was no visually impaired judge anywhere in India, not that I know of,” Thanya mentioned. “After the judgment, I am the first person to qualify.”

When contacted, one other LLB classmate teasingly referred to as her a ‘padipist’, a bookworm. Thanya prefers one other phrase. “It was a craving for knowledge,” she mentioned. “You (people who can see) may not understand the extent of our craving.” That starvation for data, greater than her cracking the judicial examination, is the place her story actually begins.

Thanya was born blind and is the second daughter of Jaganathan, a jewelry designer working in Oman, and Babitha, a homemaker. Her elder sister, Thara, is a journey and tourism govt in Dubai.

She picked up the Braille system at a really early age. “I was fluent in Braille when I joined Class 1,” she mentioned. It grew to become her window to the world of data.

Thanya studied on the Model School for the Blind in Kannur. By the time she reached Class 10, she was sure of a profession in legislation. “There are no lawyers or judges in my family, not even in my distant family,” she mentioned. Thanya mentioned she noticed the research of legislation as a safeguard, a way to defend and assert the rights of marginalised communities, a bunch she counts herself in.

Her household stood by her. Her mates recalled that her mom, Babitha, and elder sister Thara moved to a home in Dharmadam to remain nearer to the legislation school. Either her mom or sister would come to drop her off and choose her up, they mentioned.

But when she joined the legislation school, studying materials in Braille started to skinny out. A daily web page is translated to 4 pages in Braille. Her tutorial wants made Braille cumbersome. Technology stepped in to bridge that hole.

She turned to audiobooks and screen-reading software program. “Initially, I would download audiobooks onto a pen drive and listen to them on my computer,” she mentioned. “But when I joined LLB in 2019, audiobook libraries had become WhatsApp groups.”

In these teams, visually abled volunteers learn books, chapter by chapter, and posted audio messages. They are clearly listed for straightforward entry. They would add one or two chapters daily. “Many of us read four to five books a month because of these audio files. I think we end up reading more books than many people who can see,” mentioned Thanya, who reads fiction to unwind. “When expertise made data accessible, we used it to the utmost.”

Allow devices in courts
In class, she took notes in Braille. “She would vigorously punch her notes and use them while making presentations,” recalled her former classmate, now practising in Kochi.

That follow travelled together with her to court docket. After enrolling as an advocate, she started practising on the Taliparamba court docket complicated below Advocate Sunil Kumar Ok. “My senior always created opportunities for me to argue cases, not just file representations,” she mentioned.

She would learn case paperwork in her workplace utilizing screen-reading software program resembling NVDA and word down the legislation factors in Braille. “In one-and-a-half years, I argued several cases,” she mentioned.

The problem arose when a doc needed to be learn spontaneously in court docket. Files are bodily. Electronic units should not permitted inside most courtrooms. “When we are not able to read it ourselves, we have to ask for help,” she mentioned. “That is a big accessibility issue.”

She believes the judiciary ought to allow the usage of studying devices in courtrooms so legal professionals with visible disabilities needn’t rely on a 3rd individual. “That’s the main issue I faced,” she mentioned.

Yet she is optimistic. “When I wrote the entrance exam, I was very hopeful because changes had come in the Bench,” she mentioned.

Courts have already begun adopting voice-to-text methods for recording proof. Judges repeat what a witness or accused says, and the system converts the spoken phrases into real-time textual content on a pc earlier than the stenographer, who corrects minor errors. The Taliparamba court docket launched this facility final yr, she mentioned.

Currently, order sheets — which file the date of listening to, events current, proceedings of the day, instructions, adjournments and interim orders — are crammed manually. But she expects voice-to-text expertise to increase there as effectively. “That makes the field level,” she mentioned quietly. “Technology will break down the barriers.”

Just 24 at the moment, she sees herself sooner or later within the greater judiciary.

The constitutional groundwork, she believes, is already being laid. During the listening to of the suo motu case difficult guidelines that barred visually impaired candidates from judicial service, the Supreme Court of India examined not simply eligibility however institutional readiness. Justice Pardiwala requested whether or not blind judges may require specialised coaching. Amicus curiae Senior Advocate Gaurav Agarwal responded that sensitisation was crucial not just for judges with disabilities but in addition for the judicial officers and employees who work alongside them.

Thanya has crossed the primary barrier by cracking the doorway examination. Now, the system could must catch up.