83. Second, the examining body is entitled to prescribe procedures that ensure against a misuse and to deal with any instances which may come to light. This is not a problem peculiar to India or that of an intractable nature. To illustrate, in March 2019, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation code named Operation Varsity Blues which is popularly known as the “College Admissions Scandal”. As part of the investigation, several individuals were arrested and charged on the allegation of seeking extended time on college entrance exams, by falsely making it appear that the students concerned had learning disabilities, so as to acquire the requisite medical documentation. Once the accommodation was approved, large-scale cheating and impersonation took place at test centres in Houston, Texas and Hollywood, California. Suffice it to say that the possibility of misuse cannot be used to deprive equal access to persons with disability from seeking the facility of a scribe. Absent such a facility, persons such as the appellant who suffer from a chronic neurological condition would be deprived of a statutory right of equal opportunity in gaining an appointment to public services. To do so would negate both the constitutional right and its statutory recognition in the provisions of the 2016 RPwD Act.”
