Coming down heavily on establishments that fire or lay-off employees, and downgrade salaries or position, in case of disabilities acquired by staff during employment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court pulled up State Government for being insensitive and indifferent to the plight of employees with disabilities.
The court was hearing the case of one Mr. Rawel Singh, who was being denied service with the state government until the retirement age on account of acquiring a disability.
Referring to Section 47(1) of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunity, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal asserted that in the event an employee was found to be unsuitable for the post he was holding, he was required to be shifted to some other post with the same pay scale and service benefits.
“If it was not possible to adjust the employee against any post, he could be kept on a supernumerary post until a suitable post was available or he attained the age of superannuation, whichever was earlier,” the court said.
Justice Grewal asserted that the employer must provide an enabling work environment, keeping in view the disability of the employee. Merely because the employee could not carry out work as a junior assistant, it could not be taken that he would be unfit to discharge any other job.
“The petitioner shall be taken back in service forthwith in the same pay scale and adjusted at a suitable post where he may work online from home given the Covid-19 pandemic,” Justice Grewal ruled.
Appearing before Justice Grewal’s Bench through video-conferencing, his counsel Manu K Bhandari contended that the petitioner was 75 percent physically challenged, but the respondents were arbitrarily not allowing him to continue till the age of 60 in violation of the Act, according to a news report.
