Petition against failure to reserve jobs for PwDs

A writ petition – No. (K)/2018 – was filed before the Kohima Bench of Gauhati High Court on Wednesday against the State government’s alleged failure to implement job reservation for persons, a press note by the Nagaland State Legal Services Authority (NSLSA) stated.
Justice S Serto, in whose court the case was listed, services notice to respondents – chief secretary and personnel & administrative reforms commissioner & secretary. He listed the matter for furthering hearing after four weeks. Nagaland Public Service Commission chairman has been made the proforma respondent in the case.
The petitioner, Toviholi Swu of Chekiye village, Dimapur alleged that after the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) Act, 1995 was enacted, the Nagaland government had acted with subterfuge by not implementing the Act in the manner it should have been, thereby depriving the marginalised their share of reservation. While the Act of 1995 provided minimum 3% reservation of jobs for the disabled in the State government/public undertaking institutions, the Act of 2016 provided fixed minimum job reservation at 4%.
After the PwD Act of 1995 was enforced, the State government came out with a notification on August 19, 2004 providing 5% jobs reservation to persons with disability. But the notification was revoked and replaced by another notification on January 16, 2008 providing 3% reservation of jobs for the disabled. Both the notifications were said to be guided by principles laid down by Supreme Court of India and the Union Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Ministry.
The petitioner pointed out that the letter {no. 36035/16/91-Estt. (SCT)} of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions on February 18, 1997 and the office memorandum of the ministry on December 29, 2005 provided at least 3% reservation in all categories of jobs for persons with disability in Group A, Group B, Group C and Group D category of posts.
However, despite the clear mention in the State notifications that these were guided by the principles laid down by the apex court and the Centre, the State government did not implement the reservation in all posts for persons with disability, it was alleged.
The petitioner further alleged that though several representations (April 27, 2017; October 24, 2017; and November 8, 2017) were submitted to the government, all these fell on deaf ears. Hence, having left with no other alternative, she approached NSLSA and urged it to seek the high court’s intervention on the matter. NSLSA appointed a legal aid counsel on March 16 this year.
In tune with the office memorandum and principles laid down by the Supreme Court, Union Public Service Commission reserved jobs for persons with disability in IAS, IFS, IRS, etc. However, the notification of 2008 showed that there was no job reservation for persons with disability in posts like EAC, AEO, SA (Partial), etc, in Nagaland, the petition pointed out.
The petitioner sought the court’s immediate intervention into the matter.