Give disabled 3% job quota: SC to Centre & states In a landmark order, the Supreme Court on Tuesday extracted significant employment opportunities for the disabled by directing the Centre and states to implement within three months an 18-year-old law mandating 3% reservation in government jobs. The 1995 Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act came into force on February 7, 1996 providing a minimum 3% reservation — 1% each for persons suffering from blindness or low vision; hearing impairment; and locomotor disability or cerebral palsy. The reservations will be implemented by all government departments, PSUs and government companies, enlarging opportunities for persons with disabilities eligible for benefits under the law. The court rejected concern of the 3% quota breaching the 50% cap on reservations indicating it would come from SC, ST, OBC even general category seats lying vacant. SC junks govt line on quota for disabled New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Centre and states to implement within three months an 18-year-old law mandating 3% reservation for disabled in government jobs. The National Federation of the Blind had moved the Delhi HC seeking implementation of the law while pointing out contradictions and deficiencies in the office memorandum issued by the Centre. The HC had allowed their petition. The Centre challenged the HC verdict in the SC. The apex court bench rejected the Centre’s argument that 3% reservation to disabled would see quotas exceed the 50% cap on quotas as it said 49% reservation to SCs (15%), STs (7%) and OBCs (27%) in government jobs was vertical in character, while the benefits to disabled were horizontal in nature. An SC bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjana Desai and Ranjan Gogoi lamented the lackadaisical approach of the Centre and states in fully implementing the law. “We hereby direct the appropriate government to compute the number of vacancies available in all the establishments and identify the posts for disabled persons within three months from today and implement the same without default,” said Justice Sathasivam. The court directed the Centre to issue instructions to all departments, PSUs and government companies “declaring non-observance of the scheme of reservation for persons with disabilities should be considered as an act of non-obedience and the concerned nodal officers responsible for the proper strict implementation of reservation shall be departmentally proceeded against for default”
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 14:16:21 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015