Overview
- The Union government issued a notification on May 22, 2026 that amended the Schedule to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 to define an “acid attack victim” as anyone disfigured externally or internally by acid or similar corrosive substances.
- Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a three-judge Supreme Court bench on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 that the May 22 notification has been formally issued and the court treated the change as clarificatory and retrospective.
- Because the amendment is retroactive, victims who suffered internal injuries from forcible ingestion before May 22 can now seek disability status and access RPwD benefits and welfare schemes under the 2016 law.
- The Supreme Court used its plenary power in May to add forcible acid administration into the RPwD framework and has urged the Centre to consider changes to penal and bail rules, tighter controls on acid sales, and a comprehensive survivor support policy to cover long-term medical care.
- The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita already criminalises both throwing and administering acid with penalties from 10 years to life imprisonment, but advocacy and the court’s directions mean the next steps to watch are formal penal or bail amendments, asset-based compensation measures, and rules to speed up trials and medical support for survivors.