M. SELVAKUMAR Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Instant writ petition has been filed to quash G.O.Ms.No.53, Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme (SW-4) Department, dated 11/4/2005, issued by the third respondent, in so far as it does not include the post of Deputy Collector, Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies and Assistant Director of Rural Development Department in the Annexure to the G.O., the list of posts identified under Group A and B categories which can be reserved for the persons with disabilities and Notification/Advertisement No.179 issued by the fourth respondent in so far as Clause 4 (d) does not even extend reservation for disabled in even for the post of District Employment Officer on the ground that the turn for handicapped person has not arisen and consequently, direct the respondents to fill up the vacancies in the post of Deputy Collector, Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Assistant Director of Rural Development Department and District Employment Officer by extending the benefit of 3% reservation to the persons with disability as provided under Section 33 of the Persons with the Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

(2.) Petitioner is an Orthopaedically challenged person. His disability was assessed at 50%. State of Tamil Nadu was providing reservation to all posts for physically handicapped persons, where rule of reservation was applicable to SC/ST, Backward Class and other Communities from 1991. The reservation was only in respect of posts in Class 'C' and Class 'D' categories. Persons with disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, (herein after referred to in short as the "Disabilities Act"), was enacted on 1/1/1996. Under Section 33 of the Disabilities Act, every Government has to reserve in every establishment such percentage of vacancies not less than three per cent for persons or class of persons with disability of which one per cent each shall be reserved for persons suffering from -

(3.) In pursuance to the Disabilities Act, instructions were given by the Government of India to extend reservation for posts in Class 'A' and 'B' also. Section 32 of the Disabilities Act provides that appropriate Government shall - (a) identify posts, in the establishments, which can be reserved for the persons with disability; (b) at periodical intervals not exceeding three years, review the list of posts identified and update the list taking into consideration the developments in technology.