Rahul Cherian Passes Away

Rahul Cherian Passes Away is an obituary published in The Hindu on 8 February 2013, reporting the death of Rahul Cherian, a lawyer and policy activist who worked on disability law, intellectual property law, and technology law. The article covers his work with Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability and Policy, his involvement in international efforts to improve access to published works for visually impaired persons, and his association with the Centre for Internet and Society as a fellow.

This article is included in the Sunil Abraham Project because of its broader significance to the history of CIS and the disability rights and accessibility community, rather than as a media mention of Sunil Abraham.

Contents

  1. Article Details
  2. Full Text
  3. Context and Background
  4. External Link

Article Details

📰 Published in:
The Hindu
📅 Date:
8 February 2013
📄 Type:
Obituary
🔗 Article Link:
Read Online

Full Text

Rahul Cherian, an expert and policy activist in disability law, intellectual property (IP) law and technology law passed away on Thursday. He was 39.

Rahul passed away while on a family holiday in Goa. The 1998 National Law University Bangalore graduate succumbed to an infection after several days in intensive care. Together with fellow Law alumnus Sachin Malhan, had Cherian co-founded Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability and Policy in October 2009, as an NGO supporting stakeholders and public bodies about laws and policies affecting persons with disabilities.

As head of policy initiatives at Inclusive Planet, he was involved in drafting the Treaty for the Visually Impaired currently being agreed upon by the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva.

Rahul Cherian was also a fellow at the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a legal expert on the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment's panel on disability laws, and an advisor to several government initiatives related to the disability sector.

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Context and Background

Rahul Cherian was a central figure in India’s disability rights and accessibility law movement, best known for co-founding Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability and Policy in October 2009 and for his role in drafting what became the Marrakesh Treaty for the visually impaired, then under negotiation at the World Intellectual Property Organisation. His work bridged intellectual property law and disability rights at a time when accessible content and copyright exceptions for print-disabled persons were gaining international attention.

His fellowship at the Centre for Internet and Society situates this obituary within the broader institutional history of CIS, reflecting the organisation’s long-standing engagement with digital accessibility and disability policy. The article is preserved here not as a direct mention of Sunil Abraham, but as a record of significance to the CIS community and its people.

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