Supreme Court : Persons With Disabilities Have Right To Reservation In Promotions.
Recently, the Supreme Court has ruled that a disabled person can get the benefit of reservation for promotion, even if he is admitted in the general category or the disability has occurred after employment.
Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 does not discriminate between a person who has entered service on the ground of disability and a person who has become disabled after entering service.
The Act of 1995 recognizes the right to reservation in promotion.
Background of reservation in promotion
- In the Indira Sawhney case (1992), the Supreme Court held that the policy of reservation cannot be extended to promotion.
- However, the 10th Constitutional Amendment incorporated clause 4A in Article 16 and reinstated the provision of reservation in promotion.
- In the Nagaraj Judgment (2006), the Court laid down three governing conditions that a state must fulfill before granting reservation in promotion to SC/ST:
- Class backwardness.
- There is inadequate representation of the class in the post/service.
- Reservation is in the interest of administrative efficiency.
In the Jarnail Singh case (2018), the Supreme Court had set aside the provision of display of backwardness by the decision of Nagraj case.
Source – The Hindu
