Visually impaired man battles system for 15 years to get UPSC posting, triumphed

NEW DELHI: For 15 years,

Shiwam Kumar Srivastava

fought not just for a job, but for the right to be seen. He had cleared the UPSC exams in 2008, ranking high enough for selection.
But when the final list came out, his name wasn't on it. No explanation. No rejection letter. Just silence - a quiet, deliberate erasure.
Shiwam took the fight all the way to the Supreme Court, which in July 2024 finally ordered the Union govt to appoint him. By then, his batchmates had spent 15 years rising through the ranks. Some were joint secretaries. Shiwam, at 46, was just starting.
"The order came seven months ago, but I haven't celebrated yet. I haven't even told my relatives," he said from his third-floor apartment in Rohini, Delhi. Shiwam is with the

Indian Information Service

now.

The Persons with Disabilities (PwD) Act, 1995 guaranteed

visually impaired candidates

a fair chance in the civil services, but laws mean nothing when those enforcing them choose to look the other way. Vacancies were left unfilled. Legal protections were ignored. His rightful selection was buried in paperwork. Justice delayed wasn't just justice denied, it was a career cancelled before it had even begun.
For years, every small victory has been followed by another setback. Even now, with his post in Indian Information Service (IIS) finally secured, he remains wary. "This fight was never just about me. It was about proving that people like me deserve a place in this system - even when the system refuses to see us."
The Supreme Court's order, invoking Article 142, had directed the Union govt to place him in Indian Revenue Service or any other suitable service. He was eventually allotted IIS, but the victory was bitter. Bureaucratic blindness had cost him the prime years of his career - something no court ruling could restore.
His legal battle began in 2009, when he and fellow candidate Pankaj Srivastava discovered that UPSC had left vacancies for visually impaired candidates unfilled from 1996 to 2005. They challenged this in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which ruled in their favour in 2012. The Union govt appealed in the Delhi high court, which upheld their case in 2013. Even then, the Centre dragged the matter to the Supreme Court, where it remained stuck for a decade. Hearings stretched from 2014 to 2024, while his career remained frozen in time.
"There were three others like me. After the 2008 results, we found that our UPSC scores were higher than those selected for various services. Yet, despite clearing our interviews, we were never recommended," he said. The authorities never said it outright, but the message was clear: blind officers had no place in the govt.
Before his IIS appointment, Shiwam had worked in the judiciary for two decades, first as a junior assistant clerk at the Rohini court in 2003, then as a senior judicial assistant officer. Even there, he had faced the same structural resistance. Promotions were rare for disabled employees, and he remained stuck in the same pay grade for years - not because he lacked ability, but because the system didn't believe he deserved more.
Now, six months into his new job as an assistant director in the ministry of information & broadcasting, he commutes 60km daily in an auto-rickshaw to the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), where he is undergoing two years of induction training. "I will get perks, including a car, only after the training is over and I receive a posting," he said.
Shiwam had learned early what it meant to be overlooked. Born in Motihari, Bihar, in 1978, he had been a topper in school, when at 17 his world collapsed. Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), a rare genetic disorder, snatched away his sight permanently. His father took him to every specialist imaginable, but nothing worked. For five years, he clung to hope - yoga, meditation, alternative medicine - but by 2001, he had to accept reality.
Determined to rebuild his life, he moved to Delhi, where he trained at All India Confederation Of The Blind (AICB) and National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD), Dehradun. There, he discovered text-to-speech software like GAWS and NVDA, which allowed him to scan, digitise, and listen to books, a tool that became his lifeline in UPSC preparation.
In 2016, he married Pushpanjali Rani, who never doubted his ability to achieve his dreams. "'Impossible' is not in his dictionary. Nothing can stop him," she said. They now have two daughters, aged 7 and 2. His resilience has inspired many, including Sunil Kumar, a judicial officer at Tis Hazari Court, who credits him with pushing for major workplace reforms.