In the Court of State Commissioner for
Persons with Disabilities
National
Capital Territory of Delhi
25-
D, Mata Sundari Road, Near Guru Nanak Eye Centre, New Delhi-2
Phone-011-23216002-04,
Telefax: 011-23216005,
[Vested with powers of Civil Court under the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act,
2016]
Case
No. 876/1011/2019/04/6019 Dated:20.09.2019
In the matter of:
SUO-MOTU
Versus
The
Secretary,
Services
Department,
Govt.
of NCT of Delhi.
7th
Level, Delhi Secretariat,
I.P.
Estate, New Delhi-110002.
........... Respondent
Date of Hearing : 09.09.2019
Present: Sh. C. Uday Kumar, Special Secretary
(Services), Sh. Bhairab Dutt, Dy. Secretary (Services), Sh. Hemant Yadav, SO and
Sh. Jaswant Singh, SO on behalf of respondent.
Order
Section 33 of the erstwhile
Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full
Participation) Act, 1995 provided for reservation of 1% vacancies for persons
with blindness/low-vision, 1% for locomotor disability and Cerebral Palsy and
1% for hearing impairment. After the
said Act was repealed with the coming into force of the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act) on 19.04.2017, not less than 4% of the total
number of vacancies are to be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities
under Section 34 of the said Act. Now,
the 4% reserved vacancies are to be distributed among more categories of
specified benchmark disabilities as provided in Section 34 of the Act.
2. Department
of Personnel & Training vide their OM No. 36035/3/2004-Estt(Res) dated 29.12.2005 and OM No. 36035/02/2017-Estt(Res) dated
15.01.2018 prescribed the procedure for effecting reservation and computing the
reserved vacancies etc. at the rate of 3% and 4% respectively.
3. As
per Department of Personnel & Training OM No. 36012/39/2014-Estt (Res.) dated 22-25th May, 2015 and
the directions of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, a special recruitment drive
for filing up backlog of reserved vacancies was to be conducted by the
concerned Departments.
4. Vide
letter No. 5/1593/2017-Wel/CD/155-316 dated 05.05.2017, all the Pr.
Secretaries/Spl. Secretaries/Addl. Secretaries/HoDs, Govt. of NCT of Delhi and
the Corporations were requested to provide by 31.05.2017, the information
relating to appointment of persons with disabilities against reserved vacancies
in a prescribed format in respect of their Departments and all the
establishments such as Offices/Organisations/Institutions etc. under their
control. The format, among other things,
sought the information about the number of total vacancies filled since 1996,
the number of persons with locomotor disability, visual impairment and hearing
impairment out of the total, the backlog of reserved vacancies, and whether
separate 100-point vacancy based roster for persons with disabilities was being
maintained or not in respect of Group-A, Group-B, Group-C and Group-D
posts.
5. It was also brought to the notice of the
respondents that the Contempt Petition No. 499/2014 in Civil Appeal no.
9096/2013 in the matter of National Federation of Blind had
also been filed in the Hon’ble Supreme Court with regard to computing and
filling up the backlog of reserved vacancies.
Further, the information provided to Ministry of Home Affairs in respect
of GNCT of Delhi and other offices was not correct and the details were not as
per the proforma. It was requested that
special recruitment drive to fill the backlog of reserved vacancies be organized
without any loss of time if already not done within a specified time frame.
6. The Services Department vide letter dated 28.08.2017 provided
the information in respect of Grade II (DASS)/HC, Grade III (DASS)/UDC, Grade
IV (DASS)/LDC and Grade III (Stenographer) for which that Department is Cadre
Controlling Authority. The Department was
advised to depute the concerned officers alongwith vacancy-based roster on
03.06.2019 vide letter dated 01.05.2019.
7. During
the hearing on 03.06.2019, the representative of the Department submitted letter
dated 31.05.2019, which contains the status of requisition sent to DSSSB for
filling up the available vacant posts of Grade III Stenographer and Grade IV
(DASS) in respect of advertisement no. 02/14 post code 211/14, Adv. No. 02/18
post code 21/18 in respect of Stenographer and Adv. no. 1/17 post code 02/17
and Adv. No. 02/18 post Code 20/18 in respect of Grade IV (DASS). However, it did not indicate the total number
of vacancies filled since 1996 and the number of persons with disabilities
appointed.
8. The
representatives of the Department clarified that in the year 1998, a special
recruitment drive was conducted for appointment of persons with visual
impairment and around 40 persons with visual impairment were appointed. They also added that a very few persons with
hearing impairment apply and are finally appointed.
9. They
were informed about the provision for interchange of the vacancies with other
categories of disabilities in the event of unavailability of the category for
which the vacancies were originally earmarked.
Further, for the purpose of computing the reserved vacancies for persons
with disabilities, single vacancy based roster registers for direct recruitment
and another for promotion for Group ‘C’ posts need to be maintained as per the
instructions of DoPT. Therefore while
they may provide the details in respect of Grade-IV (DASS), Grade-II (DASS) and
Stenographer, Grade-III posts, a consolidated information indicating the total
number of the vacancies filled in Group ‘C’ posts by direct recruitment since
1996 and the number of persons with disabilities appointed out of those
vacancies so that backlog of reserved vacancies can be determined for
conducting special recruitment drive.
10. The
appointment to Group ‘A’ & ‘B’ posts are made by MHA for various Departments
to which Services Department is concerned. As there are many ex-cadre posts for which
different Department/ organizations, PSUs, Autonomous Bodies are the Cadre
Controlling Authorities, the respondent was also requested vide letter dated
30.08.2019 to intimate the names of the Department which are Cadre Controlling Authorities
in respect of various ex-cadre Group A , Group B and Group C posts.
11. Deputy
Secretary (Services III) vide letter dated 06.09.2019 informed that backlog
vacancies in respect of Grade II (DASS), Grade IV (DASS) has been sent to DSSSB
vide letter dated 08.07.2019 and 31.08.2019 for inclusion in the next
requisition. The details of the vacancies filled in Grade II (DASS), Grade IV (DASS)
and Grade III Stenographer indicating the number of vacancies filled since 1996
and the number of persons with locomotor disabilities, visual impairment and
hearing impairment has also been given.
12. On
09.09.2019, Sh. C. Uday Kumar, Special Secretary (Services), Sh. Bhairav Dutt,
Deputy Secretary (Services), Sh. Hemant Yadav, SO (Services III) and Sh. Jaswinder
Singh, SO (Services II) appeared and stated that recruitment to various posts
in Group C for which Services Department is responsible, is done at different points
of time and therefore it is practically and administratively more feasible to
maintain separate rosters in respect of Grade II (DASS), Grade IV (DASS) and
Grade III Stenographer which have large number of sanctioned posts.
13. During
the hearing, provisions of DoPT’s instructions issued vide OM dated 15.01.2018
and Section 33 & Section 36 of Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 and
Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 regarding carry
forward of reserved vacancies, interchange among the other categories of
disabilities and filling up of the vacancies by appointment of persons other
than persons with disabilities were discussed in details. It was also
considered that a separate 100point vacancy based reservation roster for
computing the reserved vacancies for persons with disabilities before 2017
under the PwD Act, 1995 and with effect from 2017 under the RPwD Act, 2016 needed
to be maintained in each Group maintaining separate 100 point vacancy based
reservation rosters for Grade II (DASS), Grade IV (DASS) and Grade III
Stenographer (all Group C posts) for computing the reserved vacancies for
persons with disabilities would not be disadvantageous to persons with
disabilities as substantial number of vacancies arise in each posts every year
and all the four group of disabilities will get reserved vacancies with one or
two recruitment years. It was agreed
that Services Department may maintain three separate rosters strictly in
accordance with the instructions issued by DoPT.
14. After
the discussions, it was decided that the Department will work out the exact
number of backlog reserved vacancies for persons with disabilities and intimate
by 11 September, 2019. They will also
make necessary modifications as per the provisions of the Act in the
requisitions which were sent to DSSSB for filling up 9 reserved vacancies (6 for
VI and 3 for HI) of Grade II (DASS) vide letter dated 08.07.2019 and 50 back
log reserved vacancies (32 for HI and 18 for VI) in Grade IV DASS vide letter
dated 31.08.2019 computed on the basis of the number of vacancies filled since
1996 as indicated in annexure “A” to their email dated 06.09.2019. They will also submit the names of Department
which are Cadre Controlling Authorities in respect of the ex-cadre posts as
sought by this Court vide letter dated 30.08.2019.
15 Vide
email dated 15.09.2019, Services Department has submitted the following
details:
S.
No. |
Classification of post
(Whether belongs to Class I, II, III or IV or to Group A, B, C or D |
No. of
vacancies filled since 1996 |
Roster Points
|
Number of Roster
point filled |
Backlog vacancy
|
Backlog vacancies
sent to DSSSB for filling up the posts. |
||||||||
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
||||||||
|
Group C Posts
|
|
OH
|
VH
|
HH
|
OH
|
VH
|
HH
|
OH
|
VH
|
HH
|
OH
|
VH
|
HH
|
1
|
Grade-1I (DASS)
|
883
|
9
|
9
|
9
|
9
|
6
|
5
|
0
|
3
|
4
|
0
|
6
|
3
|
2
|
Grade-IV (DASS)
|
4630
|
46
|
46
|
46
|
42
|
53
|
3
|
4
|
-7
|
43
|
0
|
18
|
32
|
3
|
Grade-III (Stenographer)
|
334
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
6
|
0
|
2
|
-3
|
3
|
4
|
7
|
1
|
Total
|
5642
|
58
|
58
|
58
|
52
|
65
|
8
|
6
|
-7
|
50
|
4
|
31
|
36
|
16. On
perusal of the above details, it is observed that 139 vacancies should be
reserved for persons with disabilities in Grade IV (DASS) instead of 138 as
point no. 1 of the 41st cycle would also be reserved. It is also observed that only 32 backlog
vacancies have been sent to DSSSB for filling up as against 43. Therefore, requisition for 11 more vacancies
to be filled by persons with HI should be sent.
In Grade III (Stenographer), against 334 vacancies filled, 11 vacancies
should be reserved for persons with disabilities instead of 9 as indicated in the
above table.
17. In view of the above, it is recommended that the Services
Department should revise the requisition for filling up:
i) 4 vacancies for HI instead of 03 in Grade
II (DASS);
ii) 4 vacancies for locomotor disability and
43 instead of 32 for HI in Grade IV (DASS);
iii)
3 backlog vacancies for HI instead of
1 in Grade III (Stenographer);
iv) The recruitment process should be completed
within three months from the date of receipt of this order; and
v) Names and addresses of the persons with
disabilities appointed against the reserved vacancies be intimated to this
Court within 15 days of their joining.
18. The
matter is disposed of.
19. Given
under my hand and the seal of the Court this 20th day of September,
2019.
(T.D.
Dhariyal)
State
Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities