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Respond to plea against law for 30% job quota for Uttarakhand women: HC to govt
The Uttarakhand high court’s division bench told the Uttarakhand government to respond to the petition within six weeks
Dehradun: The Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday told the state government to file its affidavit on a plea challenging the legislation that provides 30% reservation in state government jobs to women domiciled in the state.
A bench of justices Manoj Kumar Tiwari and Pankaj Purohit told the state government to file its counter affidavit within six weeks on a petition by Uttar Pradesh-based Kajal Tomar who has challenged the constitutional validity of the Uttarakhand Public Services (Horizontal Reservation for Women) Bill, 2022.
“The petitioner is a woman candidate who appeared in the Uttarakhand Combined State Engineering Service Exam, for the post of assistant engineer, which was held in August this year. The advertisement for the exam was issued in 2021. The state government has provided reservations to women candidates who are domiciled in Uttarakhand. The petition has highlighted that it is in violation of Article 16 of the Constitution of India,” said lawyer Kartikeya Hari Gupta, who appeared for the petitioner.
“The state legislature has no legislative competence to enact such a law”.
Gupta said the court observed that appointments made by the government under the law will be subject to the high court’s final decision on this writ petition.
Gupta said the high court in August last year stayed the 2006 government order that introduced reservation for women domiciled in Uttarakhand. “On January 10, 2023, when the new Act was enacted by the State Legislature and the domicile-based reservation was brought back in Uttarakhand for Uttarakhand women”, he said
The petition reasoned that the Uttarakhand assembly did not have the legislative competence to enact such a law. “Also, we have pleaded that this Act has been brought merely in order to nullify the effect of the high court order which amounts to ‘statutory overruling’ and is not permissible in the Constitution. This Act violates Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.”
According to the Uttarakhand Public Services (Horizontal Reservation for Women ) Act 2022, 20% horizontal reservation shall be given for women candidates permanently domiciled in Uttarakhand in direct recruitment in public services and posts for vacancies to be filled till July 24, 2006, and 30% reservation shall be granted after this cut-off date.
