- (1.) This contempt petition has been filed alleging willful disobedience of the directions contained in Para 54 of the judgment and order dated 8th October, 2013 passed by this Court in Civil Appeal No. 9096 of 2013 titled as Union of India and Anr. v. National Federation of the Blind and Ors. The operative directions contained in the aforesaid paragraph of the judgment of the Court dated 8th October, 2013 are as follows: (i) We hereby direct the Appellant herein to issue an appropriate order modifying the OM dated 29.12.2005 and the subsequent OMs consistent with this Court's order within three months from the date of passing of this judgment. (ii) We hereby direct the "appropriate Government" to compute the number of vacancies available in all the "establishments" and further identify the posts for disabled persons within a period of three months from today and implement the same without default. (iii) The Appellant herein shall issue instructions to all the departments/public sector undertakings/Government companies declaring that the non observance of the scheme of reservation for persons with disabilities should be considered as an act of non-obedience and Nodal officer in department/public Sector undertakings/Government companies, responsible for the proper strict implementation of reservation for person with disabilities, be departmentally proceeded against for the default. We have heard Shri S.K. Rungta appearing in person, Shri R.S. Suri, learned senior Counsel for the intervenor, Mr. Mukul Rohtagi, learned Attorney General as well as Mr. Ranjit Kumar, Learned Solicitor General.
(2.) Shri Rungta has primarily urged that contempt of this Court's order has been committed by the Respondent by not making provision for reservation in promotion and also by not identifying the posts against which the persons with disabilities can be appointed and in not making such appointments. Shri Rungta has submitted that notwithstanding the efflux of a long period of time since the Act came into force and the directions of this Court dated 8th October, 2013, a large number of vacancies remained unfilled and even those vacancies which have been filled up constitute a negligible percentage of persons with impaired vision. Drawing the attention of the Court to paragraph 51 of the judgment, Shri Rungta submitted that this Court had clearly and categorically held that the provisions of the Act with regard to reservation would apply in the matter of promotion; however, no steps in this regard have been taken by the Union till date. All such acts and lapses on the part of the Union are in clear breach of this Court's order and, therefore, the appropriate authority of the Union including the impleaded Respondents are liable to be dealt with under the Contempt of Court's Act and Article 129 of the Constitution.
(3.) Shri Suri, learned senior Counsel appearing for the intervenor has submitted that in a writ petition before the Bombay High Court dealing with the issue of reservation in promotion, orders were passed holding that the decision of this Court in Union of India and Anr. v. National Federation of the Blind and Ors. provided for reservation in promotion and the special leave petition by the Union of India against the Bombay High Court judgment has been dismissed. In such circumstances, the issue with regard to reservation in promotion, according to Shri Suri, is no longer open and the Union is duty bound to give effect to such reservation.;