'Reservation For Physically Disabled Horizontal' : MP High Court Allows Plea Of SC-PwD Candidate In Civil Judge Selection

The Jabalpur Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has held that vertical reservation can be granted in favor of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes concerning Article 16(4) of the Constitution of India and the reservation in favor of physically handicapped concerning Article 16(1) of the Constitution of India shall be considered as a horizontal reservation.Holding so, the High Court allowed a petition filed by a candidate belonging to scheduled caste and also a person with disability seeking selection in civil judge examination. It also noted that the reservation to a physically disabled person under Article 16(1) would be adjusted against their respective categories for computation. The Court explained,"If, for example, a physically handicapped person selected for appointment happens to belong to Scheduled Caste category, he will be taken to have exhausted one seat of Scheduled Caste category. If however he belongs to open competition (O.C.) category, he will be placed in that Category by making necessary adjustments. The purpose of this is to ensure that horizontal reservation provided within the vertical reservation may not result in exceeding the percentage of the prescribed quota. The proper and correct course for applying the policy of reservation is to first fill up the Open Competition quota (50%) on the basis of merit and second step would be to fill up each of the social reservation quotas i.e. S.C., S.T. and OBC and then the third step would be to find out how many candidates belonging to special reservations have been selected on the above basis and if that quota is already satisfied, no further question of providing reservation arises. If not so satisfied, the requisite number of special reservation candidates i.e. horizontal reservation shall have to be pushed up and adjusted against their respective social reservation categories by deleting the corresponding number of candidates therefrom."A division bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Vijay Kumar discussed the intent behind the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. They noted that it is meant to give assistance to those upon whom the destiny has inflicted various kinds of disabilities and to provide them an opportunity to participate in the social milieu like any other able-bodied person. The bench also took note that despite progressive steps taken by the Courts and the initiatives taken by the Government, the implementation of the Act of 2016 is far from satisfactory. It remarked,"The disabled are victims of discrimination inspite of the beneficial provisions of the Act. The entire struggle of this class of citizens is that they have to fight at two fronts, first is the disablement which the destiny has thrust upon them to override the difficulties in their life and second is the mindset of the society in which they live and their bias that this class would not be able to discharge duties as effectively as the other able bodied persons can do."Factual MatrixThe petitioner, Saroj Dehariya, is challenging the final result of Civil Judge Class-II (Entry Level) Examination, 2018 to the extent of non-selection and consequential denial of appointment to the petitioner on the post of Civil Judge Class-II (Entry Level) in the Physically Handicapped quota (Scheduled Caste category).The advertisement stipulated that reservation of 6% shall be given to the Specially Abled candidates as per the provisions of Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (for short the "Act of 2016"), and selection of that Category shall be made based on their inter-se merit; however, their seats shall be counted against any of the quotas to which they belonged.It is the petitioner's case that she is suffering from 68% permanent locomotor disablement and secured 224 marks out of 450 marks. She submitted the application form for appointment against the vacant post under the Scheduled Caste (Physically Handicapped) Category. It is contended that out of 474 candidates declared successful in the main written examination; the petitioner was the only physically handicapped candidate who was called for an interview. As a result, there were four seats reserved for physically handicapped persons under the un-reserved/open Category, one seat was reserved for physically handicapped persons in Scheduled Caste Category, and two seats were reserved for physically handicapped persons in Scheduled Tribe Category. When, however, the result was declared, the petitioner came to know that she has not been selected despite being the only eligible candidate in his Category. Advocate Sandeep Kochar, appearing for the petitioner, argued that in the previous examination for appointment on the post of Civil Judge Class-II (Entry Level), had selected one candidate under the Physically Handicapped quota in Open/General...

'Reservation For Physically Disabled Horizontal' : MP High Court Allows Plea Of SC-PwD Candidate In Civil Judge Selection

Shrutika Pandey

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