Friday, September 4, 2015

Supreme Court of India fumes at Several states silent on implementation of Disabilities Act |

4th Sep, 2015

Bringing into focus the plight of disabled people, the Supreme Court today fumed at several states not filing responses as to steps taken to implement various provisions of the Disability Act.

In April , the apex court had issued notices to the Centre and all states on a plea seeking periodic monitoring of implementation of various provisions of the Disabilities Act. But ten states including Delhi Rajasthan, jharkhand have not yet filed responses.

An angry bench headed by justice Dipak Misra told lawyers representing several states: “let the matter now be posted for October 13. We are giving last chance to all states to file their responses. In the event of further failure strict action will be taken”. The plea states that a majority of citizens belonging to disabled  category have not got any relief even two decades after the rules were passed.

Justice Sunanda Bhandare Foundation, on whose petition the court has been issuing orders for the welfare of the differently-abled since 1998, had moved an application saying that unless there was an effective monitoring system on the lines of Vineet Narain judgment in which the SC is keeping a tab on investigation of various corruption cases and issuing periodic directions, the implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, will merely remain on paper.

Ambar Qamaruddin, the lawyer for the petitioner, pointed out that the court itself had last year observed that only the Centre, some states and the UGC had satisfied it on the implementation of the rules.

A majority of the states were yet to comply with it and thus, the need for a monitoring mechanism.

“Even in last year’s order, the court had said all measures had to be taken ‘positively by the end of 2014’ but nothing had happened,” Qamaruddin submitted.

“Central government, state governments and UTs may be directed to file a quarterly/half yearly status report before the court,” he argued.

The directions pertained to reservation of 1% of identified teaching posts in various schools and colleges for the disabled, jobs in private sectors and PSUs, seats for students in various universities and creating special facilities for differently-abled persons at public places such as railway stations, bus terminus, airports and in trains, buses and aircraft.

Directing that all measures be taken by the end of 2014, the court had in its order in March, 2014, said: “The beneficial provisions of the 1995 Act cannot be allowed to remain only on paper for years and thereby defeating the very purpose of such law and legislative policy.

“As a matter of fact, the role of the governments in the matter such as this has to be proactive. In the matters of providing relief to those who are differently-abled, the approach and attitude of the executive must be liberal and relief oriented and not obstructive or lethargic.

“A little concern for this class who are differently-abled can do wonders in their life and help them stand on their own and not remain on mercy of others.


Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Supreme Court on filling up of backlog Disability quota (in promotion?)

A unique example of how selected media reporting can create grapevines.  I have learnt that the proceedings in the court were completely different from what has been reported here by the TNN.

The Hon'ble Supreme Court was actually hearing a contempt petition filed by the National Federation of the Blind against the Central Govt for complying with the court's October 8, 2013, regarding filling up of 15000 vacant posts. SC dismissed the plea saying that implementation is under way and accepted Center's response that it will be completed by 31st March 2016.

In this context, While disposing of the plea, SC clarified that since the Govt. of India has committed itself to fill up the entire backlog of vacancies numbering about over 15,000 by way of a special recruitment drive in terms of office memorandum dt. 22.5.15, the contempt proceedings will not be initiated. 

The court said the question of reservation in promotion was not there for adjudication since its October 2013 judgment was only in respect of filling up the vacancies reserved for physically disabled people at the entry point, and could not be read into promotion. The story made out thus is unnecessary reading between the lines.

The bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N V Ramana said this while giving clarification on its October 2013 judgment by which the court had held that the 3 percent reservation for physically challenged people would depend on the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength.

The court said its order has to read in the context of two questions it had framed and addressed in its October 8 judgment. And these two questions were:

(a) First was about the manner of computing 3 percent reservation for people with disabilities as per Section 33 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 Act.

(b) The second question that the court had answered in the October 8 judgment was whether the reservation should be post-based or vacancy-based.

I feel the Hon'ble Bench  thus did not sit to review or clarify its earlier order on the issue of reservation in promotion for persons with disabilities. In fact after the said judgement of October 08, 2013,  the Hon'ble SC upheld the orders of Bombay High court, High court of Delhi and High court of Allahabad laying down that Section 33 includes reservation in promotion as well by way of various judgments particularly judgments dt. 10.12.13 in Civil Appeal No. 9473/2011 titled as Municipal Corporation of Delhi Vs. Manoj Gupta, judgment dt. 12.9.14 in C.C. No.13344/2014 and judgment dt. 27.2.15 in civil Appeal No.5914/2015 titled as Union of India Vs. National Confederation for Development of Disabled and Ors and judgment dt. 20.3.15 in Civil Appeal No.4641/2015 titled as State of U.P. Ors. Vs. Sanjeev Kumar Jain and Ors. dismissing the civil Appeals/ SLPs both of Govt. of India as well as respective State Govts.

Therefore, it is to be clearly understood that if  SC /ST are given the quota in direct recruitment as well as in promotion, the disabled category should not be left out from this benefit under the benevolent legislation whose mandate is equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation of those living with disabilities.  The govt should bring out appropriate revised DoPT memo to implement this long pending issue of reservation in promotion for government employees with disabilities.

Here is the TNN reported version that sought to create confusion among the stakeholders :

SC: Differently abled can’t claim quota in promotion

Amit Anand Choudhary,TNN | Sep 2, 2015, 05.36 AM IST


NEW DELHI: Differently abled persons can claim benefit of reservation in government jobs only at the time of appointment and cannot get the benefit of the affirmative policy in promotion, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday while clarifying its earlier verdict.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N V Ramana said the apex court's 2013 verdict did not hold that the reservation policy could also be extended to promotion in jobs and stressed that the disabled could claim benefits only at the time of recruitment.

The SC had in 2013 directed the Centre and all state governments to provide three per cent job reservation to disabled persons in all their departments, companies and institutions under Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act which came into force in 1995.

The Centre submitted that the court had not, while passing order for three percent reservation, dealt with the issue of reservation in promotion and the disabled could not be allowed to claim the benefits.

Although the Court had directed that all vacancies under 3% reservation be filled up within three months, the governments failed to comply with the order in the last two years and there are still 10,000 vacant posts in central government. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar assured the court that all vacancies would be filled up by the end of this financial year.

Source: Times of India