Karnataka - Bangalore   

Reservation for disabled: State to move apex court

BANGALORE: For the hundreds of physically and visually challenged people expecting solace from the Karnataka Government, the wait continues. The Government has reserved five per cent of the posts of primary school teacher to the physically challenged, but is yet to implement it.

Though the High Court came to the aid of the disabled people and directed the Government to implement the reservation, the latter has not yet complied with the court ruling.

On the contrary, the State has decided to file a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the High Court order for a special drive to recruit the physically challenged to the post of primary school teachers.

Sources in the State Advocate-General’s office told The Hindu that if this was done, others too would want such a reservation.

Government advocate B. Manohar disagreed that the physically and visually challenged had not been given the benefit of reservation. He said that the Government had provided for five per cent reservation for the challenged and even identified posts for them.

The disabled had at various times challenged the denial of reservation to them by the State Government for the post of primary school teacher. In one case, Justice B.S. Patil had partly upheld an order of the Commissioner of Disabilities and directed the State to reserve posts for the challenged.

The State appealed, but a Division Bench disallowed it and directed the State to hold a special drive to recruit the physically challenged, giving a deadline of December 2007.

Jagadish Shastri, an advocate, who filed an application on behalf of Nagaveni, a physically challenged woman, before the Commissioner of Disabilities and argued the case in the High Court, said the State had deliberately refrained from giving full reservation benefits to the challenged.

The Government argued that though the Centre had reserved only three per cent of posts, it had reserved five per cent. It said that the handicapped would get the benefit of reservation along with other categories such as NCC, NSS, those displaced by development projects and ex-servicemen.

The Government contended that caste reservation (for SC, ST and others) came up to 50 per cent and reservation based on other factors came up to nearly 80 per cent. Both these reservations put together came to 130 per cent. This had forced the State to opt for reservation based on rotation.

In a scale of 1 to 100, the physically and visually challenged would get five seats and if there are less number of seats, the quota for them would come down correspondingly. If there are more than 100 seats, the reservation would correspond to that.

In case of recruitment of primary school teachers, the Government had earmarked district-wise reservations. The physically handicapped contend it had deprived them of the reservation they are entitled to. The State expects the SLP to come up for hearing once the Supreme Court vacation is over.

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