Delhi HC Seeks ICICI Bank’s Reply To Plea Alleging Discrimination
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The Delhi Excessive Courtroom has requested ICICI Financial institution to reply to a petition claiming that visually impaired people are being excluded from utilizing its digital banking providers. The plea alleges this quantities to discrimination towards disabled customers.
The Delhi Excessive Courtroom issued a discover to ICICI Financial institution concerning a petition that claims the financial institution’s digital platforms should not structurally accessible, thereby violating the elementary rights of visually impaired people.
Justice Vikas Mahajan has requested a response from the financial institution.
Petitioners Anchal Bhatheja and Rahul Jain have accused ICICI of not adhering to statutory and constitutional necessities for digital accessibility.
They identified that the financial institution is infringing on the Supreme Courtroom’s ruling in Pragya Prasun v. Union of India, which established that digital accessibility is a part of the proper to life and liberty underneath Article 21 of the Structure.
Bhatheja and Jain highlighted that ICICI’s Cellular Pay app, web site, and InstaBIZ platform lack important accessibility options, making it troublesome for display readers to interpret login fields on account of unlabelled buttons.
They contended that important duties, akin to including a payee or finishing transactions, require cumbersome workarounds.
Moreover, options like grid-based two-factor authentication and swipe-to-pay prompts turn out to be unmanageable with out disabling assistive know-how.
The petitioners famous that these obstacles hinder unbiased entry, compelling customers with disabilities to depend on sighted help, which undermines their privateness, autonomy, and dignity. They additional argued that these accessibility points expose them to dangers of monetary fraud, errors, and emotional misery.
The plea asserts that the inaccessibility of ICICI’s platforms constitutes a violation of Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Structure.
It additionally cites the Rights of Individuals with Disabilities Act, 2016, which mandates that each one service suppliers guarantee full accessibility inside two years of the principles’ notification.
The compliance deadline underneath the amended RPwD Guidelines is about to run out on Might 10, 2025.
Advocates Afreen Gauri and Sarah represented the petitioners on this case.
Case Title: Anchal Bhatheja and Anr v ICICI Financial institution Restricted and Others
