National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled
44, Ashoka
Road, New Delhi 110
001
Tel. 23369598; 9868768543
September 13, 2014
Press Statement
The National Platform for the Rights of the
Disabled (NPRD) welcomes the judgment of the Supreme Court setting at rest all
hitherto misinterpretations of the three per cent reservation provided to
persons with disabilities as per the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995. The
Court has ruled that the three per cent reservation applies not just to recruitment to all
categories, but to departmental promotions as well.
The apex court while holding that the Centre, states and Union Territories
were obligated to implement the provision of reservation for persons with
disabilities, reiterated that the principle of not exceeding 50 per cent
reservation would not be applicable while granting quota for persons with
disabilities. The Court had in October 2013 ruled that the policy of
reservations for persons with disabilities was not just against “identified”
posts (as was being wrongly interpreted by the government) and had asked it to
compute the number of such vacancies in all government departments to give jobs
to disabled persons under the three per cent reserved quota within three
months. Unfortunately, this order is yet to be implemented.
It also needs to be reiterated that Section 32 of the Persons
with Disabilities Act, 1995 also mandates that governments “at periodical
intervals not exceeding three years, review the list of posts identified and update
the list taking into consideration the developments in technology”. That the last
time this exercise was undertaken was in 2007, displays the utter callous and
insensitive attitude of the government.
Unemployment among the disabled is as high as 66 per
cent. Even the existing inadequate opportunities in the government sector are
shrinking consequent to policies of outsourcing, contractualisation,
casualisation etc.
The NPRD demands that the government implement the
Supreme Court directives with regard to computing the number of vacancies; launch
special recruitment drives to fill up such vacancies; update the list of
identified posts immediately; and also provide reservations in promotions to
employees with disabilities.
(Muralidharan)
Secretary
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