Indian Supreme Court and the Implementation of the UNCRPD

How has India fared in realizing the rights of disabled persons under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’)? Have their expectations remained naïve and unreal or has the municipal law grappled with the CRPD to enforce disability rights in a real and meaningful way? This chapter seeks to examine this issue from the standpoint of Indian case law. The purpose is to offer an overview of how the appellate courts in India are using and interpreting the CRPD. In doing so, the chapter does not seek to justify any of the approaches adopted by the courts but performs an explanatory role in understanding the judicial discourse on the CRPD. What emerges from this exercise is a variety of ways in which the CRPD has been invoked—some modest, some substantial, but all useful and unique in understanding the judicial terrain at the crossroads of disability rights, constitutional law and international law.