The Delhi High Court has asked the DoPT to file an affidavit giving the total number of vacancies notified and reservations given under the Right of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWD) for the Civil Services Exam (CSE) 2020.
The court was hearing two pleas by the disability rights organisations, which have claimed that seats for blind people and people with multiple disabilities have not been reserved under the RPWD Act of 2016, the Indian Express reported.
Petitioner organisation Evara Foundation sought directions to the UPSC and the Centre to fill up all the backlog vacancies of persons with disabilities arising since 1996 till date.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh granted time to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to file an additional affidavit before August 2, the next date of hearing in the matter.
“The DoPT will highlight in the affidavit the total number of vacancies notified and the reservations given under Section 34(1) of the Right of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 as also the details of 251 vacancies for which it is stated that no reservations can be made,” the bench said.
Central government standing counsel Abhay Prakash Sahay, appearing for the DoPT, submitted that the final vacancies notified for the CSE 2020 are 836, out of which against 251 vacancies, there can be no reservation.
As against the remaining 585 vacancies, 24 have been reserved and thus, the reservation is under the mandate of Section 34(1) of the Act, that is, 4 percent, he said.
The high court had earlier sought responses of the Centre, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), and the DoPT on the plea seeking quashing of the notice announcing the civil services preliminary and an interim stay on declaration of the results on the ground that the inadequate number of seats have been reserved for persons with vision and multiple disabilities.
Petitioner organisation Evara Foundation has contended that fewer candidates belonging to these two categories would qualify for the main examination due to an inadequate number of advertised vacancies for people with vision and multiple disabilities.
It has also been said that the number of seats reserved for vision, deaf, hard of hearing and mobility disabilities is not under the RPWD Act.
Another plea by NGO Sambhavana has alleged that only expected approximate vacancies for the disabled are mentioned in the exam notice and not the four percent mandatory reservation mandated under the law.
It has contended that the UPSC exam notice only mentioned “expected approximate vacancies” — a category that does not exist under the law.
The petition has also claimed that even the subsequent distribution of the vacancies at the rate of one percent per category of disability — deaf, blind, mobility, and multiple disabilities — is also not mathematically accurate.
