(Wl-3550)-Mapping Ableism in Indian Legal Structures

This article critically examines how the Indian legal system—from its constitutional foundations to statutory enactments—systematically marginalises persons with disabilities. It argues that disability is not merely absent from legal recognition but is actively constructed as a site of deficit, dependency, and exclusion. The Constitution enshrines ableist assumptions by equating disability with incompetence and by framing rights as conditional or deferrable. This logic is extended through multiple statutory frameworks such as the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, the Mental Healthcare Act, and data protection laws, which embed control within the language of care, and erode autonomy through caveats, exceptions, and guardianship regimes. Despite a rising jurisprudence of transformative constitutionalism across caste, gender, and sexuality, disability remains jurisprudentially peripheral—seen as an object of welfare rather than a constitutional identity. The article calls for a rupture with this ableist legal imagination, urging a structural and rights-based approach that affirms the full personhood and political agency of persons with disabilities.