A Bench of Supreme Court of India comprising Chief Justice
RM Lodha, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice RF Nariman, on 12.9.2014, dismissed
the petition viz. SLP CC No. 13344/2014 'Union of India vs National Federation
for Development of Disabled and others'. This petition was filed by the
Government against the judgment and order dated 4th December 2013 of Bombay
High Court in PIL No. 106/2010 wherein the High court, on a PIL, had directing
the government to implement three per cent reservation for the
differently-abled in civil services recruitment, besides granting the benefit in
the matter of promotion too. 'The Persons With Disabilities Act' provides for
three per cent quota for the differently-abled people. The court said that this
Act is a beneficial piece of legislation and that Appointment will include
promotion.
The Court said that the Centre, States and Union Territories were obligated to
implement the rules of reservation for this class in the matters of
appointment, selection, direct recruitment, deputation and also for promotions.
It asked the Centre to show a big heart and give the differently-abled people
their due in all central and state government jobs. The SC reiterated its
earlier verdict that the principle of not exceeding 50 per cent reservation
would not be applicable while granting quota for differently-abled people. The
Government had sought to argue that the reservation at the stage of promotion
may lead to huge resentment, especially among employees in Group A and Group B
categories, since many beneficiaries may get ahead of their seniors.
This order will give a level-playing field to more than four crore people with
disabilities in India.
Read the Full Text of Bombay High Court Judgment dated 4th December 2013.
Read the Supreme Court order dated 12th September 2014.
The Government
had confined reservation for disabled to Group C and Group D posts. In its
memoranda issued in 1997 and 2005, the Department of Personnel and Training
(DoPT) had also created a distinction between posts to be filled through direct
recruitment and those through promotion, while stating that no reservation
shall be provided in posts to be filled through promotion in Group A and Group
B categories. However, Supreme Court of
India (bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Justice Abhay M Sapre) by its
judgment on 30.6.2016 in Rajeev Kumar Gupta & others vs Union of India &
others (Writ Petition (Civil) No. 521/2008) declared the DoPT memoranda as
“illegal and inconsistent” with the Persons with Disabilities (Equal
Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. The Supreme
Court ruled that three per cent reservation shall be provided to them in all
posts and services under the Government of India. This is the first
authoritative judgment that has explicitly directed the government to do away
with the distinction and give benefits of reservation to the differently-abled,
without any classification.
The court’s
Judgment came on two petitions which challenged this policy in recruitment to
state-run Prasar Bharati. Rajan Mani of Disability Law Initiative and S K
Rungta, the only visually impaired senior advocate in the country, led the
legal challenge. The Government opposed concession to the disabled, contending
that they have no right to demand reservation in promotion to identified Group
A and Group B posts. It also cited the nine-judge bench ruling by the apex
court in the Indra Sawhney (Mandal reservation) case, to maintain reservation
should be confined to recruitment at the initial level, and not at the stage of
promotions.
But the bench
dismissed the Government’s arguments, noting that once the posts for the
disabled have been identified under Section 32 of the Act, the purpose behind
such identification cannot be frustrated by prescribing a mode of recruitment
which results in denial of statutory reservation.
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