Disability rights: Man obtains INVCG2 licence after HC intervention

The Goan Network
Panjim
After a long and hard battle, Joseph D'Souza from Vasco obtained his driving license for the INVCG2 (invalid carriage) type of vehicle on Tuesday.
D'Souza, who has a disability in his left hand, was denied a driving licence when he first applied for it in the year 2015.
However, after he approached the High Court of Bombay in Goa, who told the RTO to give him a driving test which he cleared, the HC directed the RTO to grant him his licence.
D'Souza will now be able to drive an automatic vehicle.
In 2015 when D'Souza had first applied for his license, the Vasco RTO told him to get a medical certificate from Hospicio hospital.
However, he was declared "unfit to drive" due to the disability in one hand.
The medical board had at that time questioned his ability to drive without being able to use both hands to steer the vehicle.
D'Souza, however, said he needed to drive, and that since there were many differently-abled persons, having disability in their lower limbs with licenses who encouraged him to pursue the matter, he took up the matter in court.
On the third hearing, the HC directed the RTO to let him undertake a driving test, which D'Souza said he was confident he would clear. He then went on to clear the test.
D'Souza is a government servant, who was adamant to get his license as his pregnant wife desperately needed to be taken to the hospital one night in 2015, post 11pm.
There was no one else to help, and D'Souza had a tough time getting her to the hospital as he was not in possession of a valid driving license at the time.
This incident drove him to apply for a licence with the RTO.
According to D'Souza, it was the support of other differently-abled persons who urged him to go ahead with getting his licence, that made him keep fighting for his right.