For years he studied laws that he could not read with his eyes. In February 2026 the results of the Kerala Judicial Service Examination 2025 arrived: Thanya Nathan C had won the first place in the ranking reserved for disabled candidates.
Thanya Nathan C was born blind and lives in Kannur district, India.
As a child, she had to find a different way to access the same information available to her companions.
There was Braille in elementary school.
When he arrived at university and chose to study jurisprudence, however, he met an even greater obstacle: much of the paper material was not directly accessible and had to be consulted through alternative tools.
Codes, articles, judgments, manuals.
Material that a law student normally consults with the eyes and to which she could access through Braille and technology.
Screen reading software became a fundamental part of its method of study, allowing it to navigate digital documents and listen to content.
It was no easier way to study.
That was the way she could do it.
In 2024 he obtained a law degree from Kannur University, ranking first in his course, and began forensic activity in Thaliparamba under the guidance of lawyer K. G. Sunilkumar.
During the day he worked on civil and criminal lawsuits.
Then he kept studying.
The goal was one of the most challenging: to overcome the selection to enter the Kerala judiciary.
He participated in the Kerala Judicial Service Examination 2025 to become Civil Judge (Junior Division). When the results were made known in February 2026, Thanya first appeared in the ranking reserved for candidates with “benchmark issues”.
The result assumes an even more important meaning considering what had happened in 2025: the Indian Supreme Court ruled that people with visual disabilities could not be considered automatically unsuitable to the judicial service and had to have the opportunity to participate in the selections.
At the age of 24 Thanya approached a historic milestone: becoming the first person with visual disability to hold a judicial position in Kerala.
His story does not only tell an individual success.
Tells what happens when skills and preparation finally meet a system willing to remove obstacles that have nothing to do with talent.
Throughout his training Thanya had to access the words of the law through Braille, digital tools and an artificial voice.
Yet those words understood them so well to arrive in front of a door that, until recently, for people with visual disability had remained practically closed.
He didn't need to see the pages.
He needed a chance to prove what he could do.