The Supreme Court on Tuesday wondered whether the government can “lower the scale” of eligibility for disabled candidates applying for the Indian Police Service (IPS) even as the petitioners said if Israeli, American, and Canadian forces can accommodate the disabled, India can well try.

Justice Banerjee reminded the government that there was a time when women were not allowed to join, “now they are”.

“If the Israeli Army can involve disabled persons, IPS can,” senior advocate Arvind Datar, for the NGO, National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, submitted.

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Mr. Datar was responding to an initially skeptical Bench, which asked about how disabled persons can participate in basic physical training. Justice Banerjee pointed out that officers have to climb the ranks to reach the top, and this would include physical assignments.

“I know that they cannot become DGPs overnight… However, there can be a change in the training itself. It need not involve five miles of running or rappelling, etc. In other countries, there is different training for disabled persons,” Mr. Datar said.

The Supreme Court had earlier allowed disabled persons who have cleared their civil services’ written exams time till April 1 to provisionally apply to the Union Public Services Commission for selection to the Indian Police Service, Indian Railways Protection Force Service and the Delhi, Daman & Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep Police Service [(DANIPS).