ALL INDIA CONFEDERATION OF THE BLIND Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondent/Railways had issued an advertisement/Employment Notice No.1 of 2005 for recruitment of Group 'D' staff in the Northern Railway. As many as nine categories of posts of Group 'B' staff were mentioned indicating total posts against each category. Bifurcation of these posts were also given, viz., number of posts which were General Category and those in Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and ESM categories. The petitioner felt dismayed by reading this advertisement as it did not provide any reservation for Physically Handicapped persons ('PH persons' for brevity) though the Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Disabilities Act') mandates that 3% reservation is to be given to those persons suffering from disability as defined in Section 2(d) of the Disabilities Act. This prompted the petitioner to file the instant petition, in the nature of Public Interest Litigation questioning the non-provision of reservation to the PH persons.

(2.) The instant petition is filed by Shri M.K. Rastogi, Chairperson, Advocacy & Employment Committee of the petitioner organization of disabled persons. A copy of his attorney is placed as Annexure P-1. The respondent/Department, viz., Railway Recruitment Cell, Northern Railway has issued an advertisement Employment Notice No.1/2005 to fill up thousands of Group 'D' posts in the Employment News (29 October-04, November, 2005). Disabilities Act is a remarkable piece of legislation for its main aim is to provide for and ensure equal opportunity, protection of rights and full participation of disabled persons in every walk of life. As per Section 33 of the Disabilities Act, the respondent is bound to reserve seats for the PH persons to the extent of 3% out of which 1% each must be reserved for the Locomotor (Orthopedically handicapped), hearing impaired and visually handicapped candidates. It is pointed out that authority the Group 'D' posts advertised in the impugned employment notification have also been identified suitable to be held by disabled persons. In this connection, an Expert Committee appointed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (hereinafter referred to as 'the appropriate Government') had dealt with the matter of identification of posts in Groups A, B, C and D for reservation. The said Committee in its report notified by the appropriate Government vide their Notification dated 31.5.2001 made the following recommendations:

(3.) It is further specifically stated by the petitioner that the respondent has not obtained any exemption in respect of the said advertised posts for excluding the same from the provisions of reservation to the disabled persons and therefore, 3% posts should have been reserved. Cognizance of this petition was taken by issuing notice on 07.12.2005. On 07.2.2006, an interim order was also made to the effect that the corrigendum to the aforesaid advertisement be issued for the post which are to be filled on account of 3% reservation for the PH persons pursuant to the applicability of Disability Act to all such posts which have been identified by the respondent for which examination is to be held on 12.2.2006, 26.2.2006 and 05.3.2006. Once examination was scheduled on 12.2.2006 and since it was a too near date when the order was passed on 07.2.2006, issuance of corrigendum for this examination was spared. Thereafter, various orders have been passed from time to time impressing upon the respondents to provide 3% reservation for PH persons in the post which are to be filled up by taking into consideration the backlog as well as in the past, no such reservation was made. We would like to reproduce the order dated 10.3.2008: