Handicapped – Visually Handicapped (VH) – Scribes – Guidelines

No.E(NG)II/2006/RC-2/13, dated 17.9.2007 

Sub: Guidelines for providing various concessions/ facilities including scribes to persons with disabilities while conducting examination for their recruitment against 3% quota and issuing of Physically Handicapped Certificate. 

1. Instructions contained in this Ministry’s letter No.E(NG)II-2006/RC-2/11, dated 21.06.2007 (RBE No. 90/2007) stipulate that Direct Recruitment to Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ posts from the Open Market against 3% posts reserved for Physically Handicapped (PH) will be done by Railway Recruitment Boards and Zonal Railway Recruitment Cells respectively through a common examination held for filling up reserved as well as unreserved vacancies. In the workshop held on 25.06.2007 in Railway Board, the issues relating to recruitment against such quota including provision of SCRIBEs and other facilities to physically handicapped candidates appearing in such examinations were deliberated upon.

2. Pursuant to discussion in the workshop Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) have considered the matter further and decided the following:-

(i)    Examination centers for Physically Handicapped candidates be chosen and designated in such a way that they are disabled friendly having the facilities of ramp etc. Seating arrangement for Physically Handicapped candidates in general and for Visually Handicapped (VH) candidates in particular may preferably be made on the ground floor of such centers. Besides, seating arrangement for VH candidate may be made in such a way that only five or six candidates in a room i.e. one candidate in each corner and one or two in the center of the room, can be accommodated. 

(ii)    Visually impaired Candidates/ those candidates whose writing speed is affected by Cerebral palsy can avail the assistance of Scribe for writing answers on their behalf. For this purpose they will have to suitably inform the recruiting agency in advance as per (d) below. In all such cases engagement of Scribes will be subject to the following conditions:-

(a) The candidates will have to arrange their own Scribes at their own cost during the examination. Separate Admit Cards be issued to the Scribes accompanying the visually handicapped candidates. Admit card should contain the particulars and photograph of the Scribe duly signed by him/her. The invigilators on duty will verify the identity of Scribe with photo & particulars printed on Admit card issued to Scribe.

(b) The academic qualification of the SCRIBE should be one grade below the qualification prescribed for the post for which recruitment is being made.

(c) The SCRIBE can be from any academic discipline if the recruitment is for general post. If the recruitment is for a specialist post, he/she should be from a discipline different from that of the candidate. He/she should not have secured more than 60% marks in the qualification mentioned at (b) above.

(d) The candidates as well as the Scribe will have to give a suitable undertaking (enclosed Proforma as Annexure-I) confirming that the Scribe fulfills all the stipulated eligibility criteria for a Scribe as mentioned above. In case it transpires later that he/she did not fulfill any of the laid down eligibility criteria or there has been suppression of material facts, the candidature of the applicant will stand cancelled irrespective of the result of the examination. The Visually Handicapped candidate shall be responsible for any misconduct on the part of scribe brought by him/her. The undertaking, as given in the enclosed proforma at Annexure-I, should be submitted by the Visually Handicapped candidate alongwith his/her application form.

(e) Candidates availing the assistance of a Scribe shall be eligible for extra time of 20 minutes for every hour of the examination.

2.1   The VH candidates opting to avail the assistance of Scribes be accommodated at one examination venue of the designated examination centers. The recruiting agency will not make available the question paper of the examination meant for VH candidates at examination center other than those designated for the purpose. 

2.2   The Scribe will read out the questions to the candidates and on the candidate stating clearly answer against each question, the SCRIBE will write/ indicate the same. An invigilator shall exclusively be posted with every VH candidate who have opted to avail the assistance of a Scribe. The invigilator shall have to sit alongside the Scribe who will sit opposite the VH candidate so that conversation between the Scribe and VH candidate could be overheard by the Invigilator who shall ensure that only the answers spelt out by the candidate are written/ indicated by the Scribe on the answer book.

2.3   The invigilator will ensure that the scribe makes no gesture, sounds or any other forms of communication designed to indicate to the candidate the correctness or otherwise of an answer being recorded by him. Any such attempt would entail disqualification of candidate and stringent action will be taken against both the candidate and the scribe.

2.4   Conversation between the candidate and the scribe should not disturb in any way the peace in the examination hall or the other candidates seated in the examination hall/ room

2.5   The VH candidates may be allowed to use TAILOR FRAME AND BRAIL SLATE WITH PAPER for solving arithmetic problems and they will have to bring their own TAILOR FRAME AND BRAIL SLATE WITH PAPER in the examination hall. Partially blind candidates who are able to read normal Question Paper set for all the candidates and to write/ indicate the answer with the help of Magnifying Glass may be allowed to use Magnifying Glass in the examination hall but they shall not be allowed the help of a SCRIBE. Such candidates may bring their own Magnifying Glass in the examination hall. However, they shall not be provided with the Question Paper meant for VH candidates who require the assistance of a Scribe. All one eyed candidates and VH candidates whose visual degree of disability is less than 40% shall not be considered as Visually Handicapped persons and the provision for engaging Scribe shall not be applicable to them.

3.     Question paper for VH candidates will not have any component of map/ graphs/ statistical data or diagrams/ figures/ geometrical problems etc.

4.     As regards requirement for Physically Handicapped Certificate, the following may be laid down:-

(i)    The Disability Certificate be accepted which has been issued by a Medical Board duly constituted by the Central/ State Government consisting of at least three members out of which at least one member has been/ should be a specialist in the relevant field for assessing locomotor/ cerebral/ visual/ hearing disability, as the case may be. 

(ii)    The Certificate would be valid for a period of 5 years for those whose disability is ‘Temporary’. The Medical Board shall indicate the period of validity of the Certificate where there are chances of variation in the degree of disability. For those with permanent disability the validity can be shown as ‘Permanent’.

Please acknowledge the receipt.

ANNEXURE-I
EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT FOR GROUP ‘C’/ GROUP ‘D’
Particulars of the Scribe proposed to be engaged by the Candidate
		Photograph  duly signed  by  the scribe
1.	Name and roll no. of the blind candidate
2.	Date of birth
3.	Centre/sub centre of exam
4.	Name of the scribe
5.	Father's name of scribe
6.	Address of the scribe
	(a) Permanent address
	(b) Postal address
7.	Educational qualification of the scribe
8.	Relationship, if any, of the scribe to the candidate
DECLARATION
We hereby declare that the particulars furnished above are true and correct to the best of our knowledge and belief. We have read/ been read out the instructions of the Railway Recruitment Board/ Railway Recruitment Cell regarding conduct of the visually challenged candidates/ scribes at this examination and hereby undertake to abide by them.
(Signature of the candidate)		(Signature of the Scribe)

Download Railway Board Circular dated 17.09.2007

Forward reference ⇒ RBE No.