Jammu and Kashmir Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1998
No: 6 Dated: May, 19 1998
THE JAMMU AND KASHMIR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES (EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES, PROTECTION OF RIGHTS AND FULL PARTICIPATION) ACT, 1998
(Act No. VI of 1998)
An Act to provide equal opportunities, care, protection maintenance welfare, training and rehabilitation to the persons with disabilities.
Be it enacted by the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature in the Forty-ninth Year of the Republic of India as follows:.
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Jammu and Kashmir Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1998.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification in the Government Gazette, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different areas and for different provisions of the Act.
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) "blindness" refers to a condition where a person suffers from any of the following conditions, namely:-
(i) total absence of sight; or
(ii) visual acuity not exceeding 6/60 or 20/200 (snellen) in the better eye with correcting lenses; or
(iii) limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of 20 degree or worse;
(b) "Cerebral Palsy" means a group of non-progressive conditions of a person characterised by abnormal motor control posture resulting from brain insult or injuries occurring in the prenatal, prenatal or infant period of development;
(c) "Competent Authority" means the authority appointed under section 39;
(d) "Disability" means:-
(i) blindness;
(ii) low vision;
(iii) leprosy cured;
(iv) hearing impairment;
(v) locomotor disability;
(vi) mental retardation;
(vii) mental illness;
(e) "Employer" means;
(i) in relation to a Government the authority notified by the Head of the Department in this behalf or where no such authority is notified, the Head of the Department; and
(ii) In relation to an establishment, the Chief Executive Officer of that establishment;
(f) "Establishment" means a Corporation established by or under a Central or State Act, or an authority or a body owned or controlled or aided by the Government or a local authority or a Government Company as defined in Section 17 of the Companies Act, 1956 and includes departments of a Government;
(g) "Hearing impairment" means loss of sixty decibels or more in the better ear in the conversational range of frequencies;
(h) "Institution for persons with disabilities" means an institution for the reception, care, protection education, training rehabilitation or any other service of persons with disabilities;
(i) "Leprosy cured ,persons" means any person who has been cured of leprosy butts suffering from:-
(i) Loss of sensation in hands or feet as well as loss of sensation and paresis in the eye and eyelid but with the manifest deformity;
(ii) manifest deformity and paresis but having sufficient mobility in their hands and feet to enable them to engage in normal economic activity;
(iii) extreme physical deformity as well as advanced age which prevents him from undertaking any gainful occupation; and the expression "Leprosy cured" shall be construed accordingly;
(j) "Locomotor disability" means disability of the bones, joints or muscles leading to substantial restriction of the movement of the limbs or any firm of cerebral palsy;
(k) "medical authority" means any hospital or institution specified for the purpose of this Act by notification by the State Government;
(l) "mental illness" means any mental disorder other than mental retardation;
(m) "mental retardation" means a condition' of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person which is specially characterised by subnormality of intelligence;
(n) "notification" means a notification published in the official gazette;
(o) "person with low vision" means a person with impairment of visual functioning even after treatment or standard refractive correction but who uses or is potentially capable of using vision for the planning or execution of a task with appropriate assistive device;
(p) "person with disability" means a person suffering from not less than forty per cent of any disability as certified by a medical authority;
(q) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(r) "rehabilitation" refers to a process aimed at enabling persons with disabilities to reach and maintain their optimal sensory, intellectual, psychiatric or social or functional levels;
(s) "special employment exchange" means any office or place established and maintained by the Government for the collection and furnishing of information either by keeping of registers or otherwise, respecting:-
(i) persons who seek to engage employees from amongst the persons suffering from disabilities;
(ii) persons with disability who seek employment;
(iii) vacancies to which person with disability seeking employment may be appointed;
(t) "State Co-ordination Committee" means the State Co-ordination Committee constituted under sub-section (1) of section 3;
(u) "State Executive Committee" means the State Executive Committee constituted under sub-section (1) of section 9;
(v) "Enforcement Board" means a Board constituted by the competent authority for the persons with disabilities.