Can’t deny disabled quota in govt job promotions: SC

The court was hearing an appeal filed by the Kerala government challenging the reservation in promotion benefits granted to a female staff in the state’s police department by the high court in March last year.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a person with disabilities cannot be refused reservation in promotions in government jobs even if the person was not appointed under the disability quota, as it upheld a Kerala high court order granting the benefit to a woman last year.

Kerala govt claimed that the beneficiary, Leesamma Joseph, had entered the state services as a typist in 1996 by way of compassionate appointment following the death of her brother during service. (HT file)

The court was hearing an appeal filed by the Kerala government challenging the reservation in promotion benefits granted to a female staff in the state’s police department by the high court in March last year.

The state claimed that the beneficiary, Leesamma Joseph, had entered the state services as a typist in 1996 by way of compassionate appointment following the death of her brother during service. At the time of joining, Joseph suffered from Post-Polio Residual Paralysis (L) Lower Limb and her permanent disability was assessed at 55 percent. However, since it was a case of compassionate appointment, she was hired under the general category and not as a disabled under the existing Persons with Disabilities Act 1995.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and R Subhash Reddy said: “The 1995 Act does not make distinction between a person who may have entered service on account of disability and a person who may have acquired disability after having entered the service.”