For the first time, an interpreter was heard in the Supreme Court of India for the hearing of an advocate with a hearing disability.

It took us a long time to get this done. It should have been done a long time ago.

“This is something that should have been done long ago,” said Chief Justice of the Supreme Court D Y Chandrachaud on Tuesday, a day after the first-ever time an interpreter was used to translate proceedings for a lawyer with a hearing disability.

As Debayan Roy catches up with Advocate Sarah Sunny, she talks about her experience in the legal world so far and what changes she proposes to make the court process more accessible for lawyers and disabled litigants.

“On the morning of September 22,” said Sunny, “I asked Milord if an interpreter could join the proceedings in item 37 so that she could attend the hearing.”

What happened next left senior lawyers in the courtroom amazed at how quickly the hearing in sign language was being interpreted.

At the end of the day, the question remained: Can this process be made mainstreamed so that lawyers with hearing disabilities can appear in court more often?

During COVID, I became an advocate. Initially, I wanted to join a law firm. It took me a long time to get there. I have always had my voice as my first line of communication since I was a kid. When I was representing cases in court, it was difficult for the judges to understand what I was saying. When they couldn’t see me, I wrote and showed them what I had to say. There was no interpretation facility at the courts which would have made my job easier. It was a challenge.