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News | Wednesday, 03 March 2010 Issue. 153

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Disability commission files court case against Banif

The National Commission for Disabled Persons (KNPD) has filed legal proceedings against Banif Bank, over the restricted accessibility to disabled persons in its head office and several of its branches.
The KNPD said it had investigated complaints it had received over the bank’s branch in Main Street, St Julian’s, which it said was legally bound to offer full accessibility as laid down in the MEPA permit for the establishment.
The same claims were made over the bank’s head office in Rue d’Argens, Gzira, which forms part of a block of apartments which also houses the Medicines Authority.
The KNPD added that it had brought to the bank’s attention that several of its other branches, namely its Qormi and St Paul’s Bay branches, were not fully accessible to persons with a disability.
“This situation is unacceptable given that both the head office and the St Julian’s branch were opened to the public and were not accessible to everyone, and after complaints were presented to the bank it still proceeded to open other branches which are not accessible to everyone… this constitutes discrimination towards persons with a disability,” the KNPD said in its writ.
On its part, Banif Bank said its St Julian’s branch already had a platform lift for disabled persons as was required of it by the KNPD. However, it said that since the bank lies in an urban conservation area, it was impossible to install a lift that was larger than that installed. Instead it installed a smaller platform lift, which it said was “in conformity with EU practice”.
The bank said that its head office was located in a block of apartments, and that it had no right to conduct structural alterations in the premises that did not belong to it. Additionally, it said the medicines authority was also located in the same premises, and no complaints had ever been brought against this public authority. The bank also said that its offices had been previously rented out to Bank of Valletta.
In a decision on the bank’s exceptions, Judge Farrugia Sacco refuted the claim that it was unable to make alterations to its Gzira head office. The court said that partial alterations that are necessary and useful for the enjoyment of the premises can be carried out. “It is a state of fact that the bank must conform itself with the law, and it was incumbent upon it to ensure the premises it uses is in line with the law, and if not, to get the required permission to make the necessary alterations.”
The case continues.

 


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