The Bombay High Court on Thursday struck down a significant provision of the guidelines of the Mararashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA) on its upcoming recruitment examination of visually impaired candidates.

The provision states that the candidate’s scribe must himself have secured a lower score than the candidate in a previous examination or less than 60 percent marks in his examination. The MHADA examination is scheduled on Sunday.

The court directive came in a public interest litigation filed by the Maharashtra Rajya Apang Karmachari Sanghatana. Sanghatana counsel Uday Warunjikar said, “In the guidelines, there is even a provision for criminal action against the scribe if the authority feels that he has wilfully written incorrect matter in the examination. With such restrictions, it would have been very difficult for visually impaired candidates to find willing scribes. I am happy that the court has now ruled against the provision.”