Balveer Singh vs State Of Rajasthan And Ors

This appeal seeks to challenge the judgment of learned Single Judge dated 07.07.2011 by which the writ petition filed by the appellant was dismissed.

The appellant in the writ petition challenged the action of the respondents in not providing reservation to the candidates belonging to physically disabled category with low vision for appointment on the post of Teacher Gr.II (Mathematics). Reliance was placed on the judgment of this Court in Arvind Kumar Joshi Vs. State of Rajasthan, RLW 2006 (4) Raj. 3149. The learned Single Judge however held that the aforesaid judgment does not apply to the case of the petitioner because the writ petition in that matter was seeking appointment on the post of Lecturer (Hindi) and benefit was ordered to be extended to him as the post of Lecturer (Hindi) was identified as one of the posts for appointment of blind and low-vision as per notification no.178 dated 30.06.2001 issued by the Government of India, as per mandate of Section 32 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, and that was adopted by the State Government.

Mr. Deepak Sharma, learned counsel for appellant, submitted that the respondents provided an information to one Rahul Jain under the Right to Information Act, 2005, vide communication dated 20.12.2011, under the signature of the Deputy Secretary & CPIO, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India, New Delhi. Along with the said communication, which answered the questions no.1 and 2 of Mr. Rahul Jain, he was sent a copy of the relevant pages of Notification published by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, at Serial No.241 for Group 'B' (Senior Master) and for Group 'C' at Serial No.71 and 73 (Secondary and Higher Secondary School Teacher) indicating the posts identified for the persons with disabilities (OH including CP & LC, VH and HH) in Group 'C'. The indicated designation at Serial No.71 is Higher Secondary & Secondary School Teacher for the subjects Arts, Social Science, Humanities, Music etc., and the indicated categories of disabled suitable for such jobs are those with one arm, one lag, one arm and one leg, both leg, blind, low vision.

The indicated designation at Serial No.73 is Higher Secondary & Secondary School Teacher, other than those listed else where and the indicated categories of disabled suitable for jobs are, one arm, one lag, one arm and one leg, both leg, blind, low vision. According to learned counsel for appellant at serial no.71 thereof the word 'etc.' has been included in the designation and therefore the subject 'mathematics' also ought to be included therein. At serial no.73 the described 'nature of job' is Senior Secondary and Secondary School Teachers, other include all other teachers engaged in teaching students of high and higher secondary schools, not classified elsewhere. It is submitted that there is no justification for exclusion of the subject of 'mathematics'. Learned counsel for appellant has cited the judgment of the Court of Commissioner, Disabilities, Rajasthan, dated 25.03.2009 (06.04.2009) in Case No.178/2008/20181-82 registered on complaint of said Mr. Rahul Jain, in which direction was given to the authorities to extend the benefit of reservation to the blind and low-vision disabled persons in the recruitment to the post of Teacher Gr.II (Mathematics) and only thereafter steps be taken for selection and posting of any person.

Mr. Ganesh Meena, learned Additional Advocate General appearing for the respondent-State, submitted that as per the Notification of the Government of India, identification of the post was made by an expert committed headed by the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, with others, constituted by the order of the Government of India, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, vide order dated 08.02.2005. On the recommendation of such expert committee, the Notification dated 15.03.2007 was issued, which indicates that the aforesaid expert committee constituted three sub-committees on 22.08.2005 for the categories of Orthopedically Handicapped, Hearing Handicapped and Visually Handicapped. These subcommittees made an in-depth study of various jobs performed in Government offices, public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies including Universities. The sub-committees also reviewed jobs notified through notification no.16-25/99-NI.I dated the 31st May, 2001.

We have given our anxious consideration to rival submissions and perused the material on record as also the cited judgment.

The judgment of this Court in Arvind Kumar Joshi, supra, was delivered in a case where the petitioner was blind person and applied for appointment on the post of Teacher Gr.III in Government Upper Primary School, Police Line, Jodhpur. He acquired qualifications of M.A. in first division and B.Ed. In good second division. He was claiming appointment on the post of School Lecturer (Hindi) pursuant to advertisement no.2/2001- 2002 issued by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission. This Court in Arvind Kumar Joshi, supra, relying on its earlier Division Bench judgment in Shiv Kumar Singh Vs. State of Rajasthan and Another, D.B. Civil Special Appeal (Writ) No.255/1996, decided on 14.08.2001, and that of a Single Bench judgment in Surya Prakash Sharma Vs. State of Rajasthan and Another, S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.3702/2001, decided on 13.09.2002, and taking note of the fact that the post of School Lecturer (Hindi) has been identified for both, blind and low vision candidates, allowed the writ petition and in Para 19 of the report, held as under:-

"A careful perusal of the aforesaid appendix would make it clear that the Government of India identified the post of College Lecturer for providing reservation to the blind not only in language subjects such as Hindi, Sanskrit, English etc. but also in subjects like History, Geography, Commerce, Sociology, Philosophy, Economics and Political Science. When the Act of 1995 came in force, identification of various posts for persons having different kind of disabilities already made in O.M. dated 25th November, 1986 formed basis for such identification statutorily require by Section 32 of the Act of 1995. Such identification made by the Government of India continued to remain valid for providing reservation to disabled persons with reference to Section 32 of the Act of 1995 till this list of identified posts was updated by the Government of India vide their Notification No.178 dated 30th June, 2001. In this list also, the post of University/College/School Teacher for the blind and lowvision was included as identified post for providing reservation to them at Serial No.24-27 on page 592 thereof. In the circumstances therefore when the post of College Lecturer and that too in the language subject of Hindi stood identified by the Government of India with reference to the provisions of Section 32 of the Act of 1995, much earlier than the posts in question were advertised, there was no reason not to extend the benefit of reservation to the blinds in the State of Rajasthan to a lower post like School Lecturer (Hindi). Even if in the Schedule I and II appended to the original Rules of 2000, the State Government did not identify the post of School Lecturer (Hindi) as one for which reservation could be given to the persons with disability of blindness, this difficulty was over come by notification dated 10th October, 2002 by which Rules 4 and 6 of the Rules of 2000 were amended thereby deleting Schedule I and II appended thereto and adopting identification of the posts made by Government of India."

Admittedly, in the present case, the Notification dated 15.03.2007 issued on the basis of the report of the Expert Committee, does not include such subjects, where theory is less and practical is more, wherein not only the subject of 'mathematics' has not been identified but the subjects like 'Physics' and 'Statistics' have also not been identified. The earlier view taken by the Court of Commissioner, Disabilities, Rajasthan, in its judgment dated 25.03.2009 (06.04.2009), supra, whereby direction was given to the authorities to extend the benefit of reservation to the blind and low-vision disabled persons in the recruitment to the post of Teacher Gr.II (Mathematics), has been altered and now it has taken a contrary view in its judgment dated 10.01.2012 (12.01.2012) in Case No.01/2011/2151 registered on complaint of one Mr. Subodh Bhatt of Jaipur, that blind/low-vision category candidates applied for the post of Teacher Gr.II (Mathematics) cannot be offered appointment under reservation meant for the physically disabled category candidates.

In that view of the matter, we are of the view that the learned Single Judge has not committed any apparent error in dismissing the writ petition of the appellant. We do not find any merit in this appeal. The appeal is accordingly dismissed.

This also disposes of stay application.