NO QUOTA IN PROMOTION (for disabled)-- SC

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 Center and all state governments to provide 3% 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 3% 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 under 3% disabled quota.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar assured the court that all vacancies would be filled up by the end of this financial year. He said the government had so far recruited 5269 disabled persons. “Steps are under way for filing up over 6000 posts by the end of this year and 3000 posts would be filled up by the end of February,“ he said.

The bench then directed the government to take all necessary steps for recruitment for disabled persons and asked it to honour the deadline set for complying with the 2013 order.