Supreme Court upholds Kerala HC order, says disabled people can't be denied quota in job promotions

The top court said that the 1995 Act does not make a distinction between a person who may have entered service on account of disability and one who may have acquired disability after having entered the service.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has reiterated that persons with disabilities (PwD) cannot be denied reservation in promotions in government jobs as it upheld a Kerala High Court order granting the benefit to a woman last year. The top court said that identification of posts for the purpose of reservation had to take place immediately after the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 but a resistance to this is obvious from the "delaying tactics" adopted by most of the government authorities in truly implementing the intent. It said that sometimes it is easier to bring a legislation into force but far more difficult to change the social mindset which would seek to defeat the intent of the law. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and R Subhash Reddy upheld the Kerala High Court order of March 9, 2020, by which it had held reservation in promotion to a woman with a disability.