HC directs State to consider petitioner's plea for inclusion of person with hearing impairment under PwD Act [Read Order]

Case Details

Case: D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 18386/2019

Petitioner: Kaushalya

Respondent: Counsels:

For Petitioner(s): Mr. Anoop Dhand

For Respondent(s): Mr. MS Singhvi, AG Mr. Darsh Pareek Mr. Parag Rastogi through VC Mr. VK Gupta 

Bench: Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Satish Kumar Sharma

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 A petition was filed before the Hon'ble High Court of Rajasthan by Kaushalya i.e. Petitioner seeking a direction to the State of Rajasthan to include persons with locomotive disabilities as well as those who are hard of hearing (hearing impairment) under the reserved category- for the purpose of induction as employee under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act of 2016").

Submissions on Behalf of Petitioner

The learned counsel for the petitioner summited that the Court had an occasion to deal with such issue in the case of blind applicants in the case of State of Rajasthan Versus Vikas Kumar Agarwal, decided on 02.07.20213 and pursuant to the directions of this Court, the State of Rajasthan carried out necessary amendments in the notification and included blind people in the area of reservation for recruitment of Primary School Teachers. Result of the aforesaid circumstances led to the petitioner not being considered as reserved category for a post reserved under the Act of 2016. 

The learned counsel for the petitioner on the other hand placed reliance on the recent notification issued by the Union of India dated 04.01.2021 and asserts that in so far as serial No. 1520 is concerned, Primary School Teachers, other persons with hard of hearing (HH) have been included for the purpose of consideration for appointment and reasons thereof have been stated in the said notification. 

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Submissions of Behalf of State

Learned Advocate General produced the notification and submitted that in terms of the notification issued by the State of Rajasthan, the petitioner cannot be given the benefit of reservation or consideration of posting under the Act of 2016 since persons with hearing impairment cannot be inducted as Primary School Teachers.

Reasoning and Decision of the Court

The Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court dismissed the writ petition and observed that:

"the State of Rajasthan shall consider amending its earlier notification and to bring it in line with the suggestions made by the Union of India to the extent it intends to do so and without expressing any opinion in this regard, we call upon the State Government to issue necessary modified notification under the Act of 2016 and shall reconsider the applicability of the notification issued by the Union of India in all the various departments of the State of Rajasthan within a period of three months ."

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